


Seven Days to Light a Flame

by old_and_new_friends



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Bad Matchmaking, Bisexual Male Character, Canon Bisexual Character, F/F, F/M, Fire Nation Royal Family, Fire Nation culture, Gay Male Character, Genderfluid Character, Ghosts, M/M, Matchmaking, POV Alternating, Rating May Change, Shopping, Vacation, all ships save Iroh/Mako are minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 53,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25290805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/old_and_new_friends/pseuds/old_and_new_friends
Summary: Without her connection to her past life Korra draws a blank on how to find answers to a question regarding Avatar Roku, luckily he had living descendants Korra can ask.The only issue? The family is on vacation.When the Krew gets invited to join the Fire Nation Royal Family on vacation, Korra and Asami pick up on some interesting tension between Crown Prince Iroh and their own pal Mako. Meanwhile, Bolin and Opal set their sights on a different match for Bolin's big brother, Princess Ursa, Iroh's younger sister.This Ember Island vacation just got a lot more interesting.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Bolin/Opal (Avatar), Bumi II/Izumi (Avatar), Iroh II/Mako (Avatar), Korra/Asami Sato
Comments: 72
Kudos: 203





	1. Day 1: Leaving Republic City

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings are posted at the beginning of chapters if there are any.
> 
> Please let me know if I slip up with Iroh's pronouns, I only decided halfway though the first chapter that Iroh would be genderfluid and use They/Them pronouns (though they aren't against He/Him pronouns). Korra, Asami and Opal not using correct pronouns is not a mistake, unless it's after they find out Iroh is genderfluid. Iroh, Ursa, Bolin and Mako (and the rest of the Fire Fam) should all be using They/Them pronouns as they all know Iroh is genderfluid.

\----Korra----

Korra slammed her head down on the library table in frustration. “I can’t do this anymore,” she said. “There are too many books that repeat the same information, over and over and none of it is what I’m looking for! I wish I still had the ability to just call up my past life and ask him what happened to make this city so mad at me, even two hundred years later. At this rate we will never get this feud settled for President Moon.”

“The real question,” Mako said, plopping down next to Korra with another huge book, “is why this issue has been left for so long? Surely, someone at some point in the United Nation’s history thought, hey maybe this village turned city that hates both the Avatar and this other village turned city should be taken care of.”

Asami closed the book she had in front of her. “I understand your frustration, sweetie, but this is the best we can do,” Asami said, reaching out for Korra’s shoulder. Korra looked up at Asami through her bangs and smiled weakly.

“Well,” Opal said, as she shut her own book, “apparently Roku isn’t the only Avatar with a village turned city mad at them and another village turned city, apparently Kyoshi did something similar with Chin City and Kyoshi Island. Sorry, Korra, there’s nothing in here about Roku’s visit though either.”

“Oh!” Bolin exclaimed. Korra looked up hopefully as Bolin dropped a book on the table. “This is new information!”

“Bolin,” Korra said, her face dropping. “This is a family tree.”

Mako leaned over her shoulder to get a better look at the book his brother had thrown down. “No, wait,” Mako said, pointing to something in the book, “maybe he’s onto something. Look, Avatar Roku is Lord Zuko’s great-grandfather. If we can’t find what we need in these books then maybe we can ask him?”

Korra sat up to look at what Mako was pointing at and sure enough, a middle-aged Lord Zuko stared back at her. Next to him was a very serious but intimidatingly pretty woman and below was a young chubby cheeked Fire Lord Izumi. The book must be pretty old, as General Iroh wasn’t pictured.

“That’s it!” Korra shouted standing up. “We just have to ask him!”

Korra flinched slightly as several people shushed her.

“Sorry,” Korra whispered, before dragging her friends from the Republic City Library. She made sure to check out the book Bolin had found, just in case.

It was only upon exiting the building that Korra’s enthusiasm waned.

“What’s wrong, Korra?” Opal asked.

“Um, I have no clue how to get in touch with Lord Zuko,” Korra admitted.

“Oh right,” Bolin said. Korra blew out a frustrated breath of air.

“Tenzin might know how to reach him,” Asami suggested.

Korra sighed. “But Tenzin is all the way at the Southern Air Temple right now, I might as well just go to the Fire Nation at that point!” Korra said.

“Well,” Opal said, “Why can’t we?”

“I could fly us there,” Asami said.

“Isn’t Lord Zuko a Peace Ambassador or something?” Mako asked. “Doesn’t he travel all over?”

“Mako that’s not helpful,” Asami said, tapping him on the shoulder playfully.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Mako replied, sarcastically.

“Maybe we could ask Aunt Lin?” Opal asked.

“That could work,” Korra said, starting back down the steps of the library towards the police station. It was at least a starting point.

“Chief,” Mako called, when they got there, “I have some troublemakers for you to lock up!”

Lin didn’t even look up from the filing cabinet she was digging through. “I don’t want them,” she replied.

Korra rolled her eyes. “Hey Chief, do you know how I could get in touch with Lord Zuko?” Korra asked.

Lin finally did look up, suspicion in her eyes. “Why do you need to know how to contact Lord Zuko?” she asked.

“I have a question for him about Avatar Roku,” Korra replied.

“Sorry,” Lin said, “I can’t help you. I don’t personally have his contact information. I’d have to pull it from his records on file here and legally, I can’t give it to you.”

Korra’s shoulders slumped with disappointment. “There has to be someone who can get us in touch with Lord Zuko,” Korra said, glancing at Lin in the hopes she might know someone.

“Well,” she said, “you’re friends with his grandson, are you not?”

“Eh,” Korra said, with a shrug, “I know him but now well enough to find him off his ship or a battle field.”

“Then check his ship,” Lin said, as she slammed the filing cabinet shut, “and get out of my station, you give my officers anxiety.”

Korra was starting to feel like she was on a wild swan-goose chase as she walked up the ramp to General Iroh’s ship, only to be told, he wasn’t on board.

“Are you kidding me?” Korra asked, the random soldier across from her in frustration. “Well, where is he?”

The soldier, apparently not fond of Korra’s attitude simply replied, “He’s on leave, for the next two weeks. I can’t legally tell you where he is,” before walking off.

Korra was about to blow a fuse over this stupid mission.

“He’s at home,” another soldier said, as they walked past. “He’s probably packing to head to his actual home in the Fire Nation, like he said he would, but for now he’s here in the city and that’s usually were you can find him, if he’s not here.”

“Thank you!” Korra said, glaring at the back of the other unhelpful soldier. “Do you know where he lives?”

“Sorry, Avatar Korra, but that I don’t know,” the soldier replied.

Korra deflated again. At this rate she was getting whiplash from all the back and forth she’d done that day.

Korra exited the ship and walked towards her friends who were waiting on the dock for her.

“None of you would happen to know where General Iroh lives, would you? He’s supposedly there.” Korra asked, with little hope.

Her friends shook their heads. Mako tilted his head for a moment before sitting up straight.

“Wait, if Iroh's at their house we may be able to call them,” Mako said. “I have their house number.”

Korra, and in fact all of their friends, looked at Mako oddly.

“Why do you have his house number?” Asami asked.

“We worked together on something, on and off over the last three years and Iroh gave it to me about two months before Kuvira attacked Republic City,” Mako said with a shrug. “It was never really explained why, so I haven’t bothered calling them in case it was an emergency thing. This obviously isn’t really an emergency but still.”

“Huh,” Bolin said, “that’s weird, but useful.”

They made the familiar trek to Mako’s apartment and Korra hoped with everything this would be their last stop before getting ahold of General Iroh.

Mako dug around in his contact book before producing a scrap of paper with a number written across it. The phone rang once, twice and then was picked up.

“General Iroh speaking, may I help you?” His voice came out softly because they had the ear piece held out between the five of them.

“Uh, hi, General, um this is Detective Mako,” Mako said, giving his friends a helpless look.

“Good afternoon then, Mako,” the General said, his demeanor on the phone changing from distantly professional to something more friendly, “and here I was thinking you were never going to call after nearly a year of silence.”

“Yeah,” Mako said, “I never had a reason to before.”

“Oh,” General Iroh said, his demeanor changing once again. This time he sounded slightly disappointed about something but he was back to distantly professional, as soon as he started speaking again. “What’s your reason for this call then?”

“Ah, Korra needs help getting into contact with Lord Zuko and was wondering if you could help,” Mako said.

“I would greatly appreciate it,” Korra said, grabbing the mouth piece from Mako. “I have a question for him, regarding one of my past lives.”

“Avatar Korra’s with you then?” General Iroh asked, his voice sounding slightly strained.

“Are you okay, General?” Asami asked, “You sound a bit worn out.”

Korra smiled softly at her girlfriend, always taking care of others.

“And Miss Sato,” General Iroh added. “I’m just slightly thrown off by something. It’s not important. Just out of curiosity, who else am I speaking to?”

“Just us, Bolin and Opal,” Korra replied.

“Right,” General Iroh said. “Well to answer your question, you’ll have to travel to him. Granddad’s on Ember Island for the holiday for the next week, so is the rest of my family. There’s no phone out there at the insistence of my Granddad. I was about to leave that way tonight.”

Korra felt like screaming. “Thank you, anyway General,” Asami said. Korra was glad she spoke up before Korra did. She would have said something dumb if she spoke now.

“Hey,” General Iroh called out before they hung up, “if you want, it’s a private airship, so you five could come with me?”

“Won’t that ruin your vacation?” Opal asked.

“Just promise me you’ll wait until the end of the vacation to drag my Grandad into whatever chaos you all are up to now, and it will be fine. You aren’t on a time crunch, are you? I might be able to answer your question, if you are,” General Iroh suggested.

“We sort of have a time crunch but so long as we get our answer exactly after a week, we should be able to settle this. We’ve been given a month by the courts,” Asami replied. “Do you know anything about Avatar Roku and the Du village, now Duadi City or Xia village, now Xia City?”

“Sorry,” General Iroh said, “I don’t, nor do I think my Granddad would know, but there may be information in the Dragon Catacombs, even if my Granddad doesn’t know. Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin were friends at one point, so Sozin may have hidden the information. He and Fire Lord Azulon locked up a lot of information in there.”

“I’m sure they did,” Korra said, sarcastically.

There was an awkward lull on the phone after that comment. Korra realized just a bit too late who she had just said that too. Right, General Iroh was related to all three of the men he just spoke about.

“Well,” General Iroh said, “I’m leaving in about two hours from the airbase, if you all want a ride.”

“We will meet you there General,” Korra assured. “Goodbye.”

“See you soon,” General Iroh replied in turn.

Korra hung up the phone. “Okay, it wasn’t just me, right? Something about that phone call was extremely painful,” Korra asked.

“No, it was weird,” Asami said. “He seemed really uncomfortable about something.”

“Are we really about to just invite ourselves into the Fire Nation Royal Family’s vacation?” Mako asked, incredulously.

“Hey,” Korra said, “we need answers and this means Lord Zuko can’t escape somewhere else without a phone, without us catching him.”

“Fine,” Mako said, “let’s crash a monarch’s vacation. I need to pack, and so do you guys, so I’ll meet you at the airbase.”

Korra and her friends left Mako’s apartment. Bolin and Opal turning one way to get to Bolin’s apartment. Opal should have an easy time of packing considering she just got to the city two days ago.

Korra and Asami headed in the direction of Asami’s manor. When they got there, the two did their best to dodge Mako and Bolin’s family. While Asami and Korra would never be angry at their presence in the house, the fact remined, they could stall someone for hours, and they didn’t have hours to be stalled.

Asami pulled out a matching set of six red suitcases.

“How much luggage do you think I’ll need?” Asami asked. “Would just the big one and the carry-on work? I haven’t packed on such sort notice for such a long trip before.”

Korra’s eyes went wide. “Uh, I think that would be fine. Anything else might be obnoxious,” Korra said. “It’s a vacation, you don’t need to look your best.”

Asami made a face but only kept the two pieces. “Do you want to borrow one?” Asami asked.

Korra looked down at the workout bag and the backpack she was planning on using. She contemplated it for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m good,” Korra said. “It should all fit.”

They were quiet as they packed after that, moving around the room and each other as they gathered their things.

“It’s the Fire Nation,” Korra said, suddenly, “Do I need to pack lighter clothing? Or a swimsuit?”

“Probably,” Asami replied, “That’s what I’m doing. You know, as much as this is to try to corner and strongarm an elderly monarch, this might actually be good for us. I think all of us are well over do a vacation.”

Korra laughed. “Yeah, particularly after our last one ended abruptly,” she replied. “General Iroh apparently needs this too. The man sounded majorly stressed over the phone.”

“Yeah,” Asami said. “You don’t think, well never mind.”

“Don’t think what?” Korra asked.

“It’s just Mako said General Iroh gave him his number out of the blue after working together for three or so years on something. Then General Iroh seemed surprised but happy Mako called until Mako explained why he called. Then he seemed upset, particularly when he realized he wasn’t on the phone with just Mako,” Asami explained. “Do you think he gave Mako his phone number as a come on of some sort, as an invitation for more than work relations? General Iroh did imply that he had been waiting on a call from Mako for a while.”

Korra’s eyes went wide and she dropped the blanket she was packing. “Asami, that’s it! General Iroh was being weird because he thought Mako was calling him for personal reasons and then he found out otherwise,” Korra paused for a moment. “Oh, that must have hurt, to think after a year of silence that you were finally getting a date you wanted, only to find out the call was because you were needed for something.”

“Do you think Mako knows?” Asami asked.

Her and Korra traded a look before laughing. “No,” Korra said, though her laughter. “He doesn’t have a clue.”

Korra and Asami finally settled down with their laughter and started packing again when an idea stuck Korra.

“Do you think he would like General Iroh back?” Korra asked. “He keeps his sexuality quiet but he did tell us a while back that he thinks he might be bisexual. General Iroh is really hot. If Mako just misunderstood, then maybe there is still a chance Mako might like him back.”

Asami looked up at Korra. “For that General Iroh would need to be way more obvious than he’s been, for Mako to get it. He would have to ask Mako out himself, and considering how skittish he was on the phone, I think he might be too shy.”

“General Iroh isn’t shy, Asami,” Korra said. “Have you seen how brash and off the cuff he can be sometimes?”

“Yeah, but that’s on the battle field,” Asami said. “Maybe off the battle field he’s more reserved, or you know maybe cute guys make him nervous like cute girls make Bolin nervous.”

“Shame,” Korra said. “They would be cute together.”

Her girlfriend hummed in agreement.

\---- Iroh ----

Iroh slammed their head down on the desk, where the phone was hooked up. The desk top helped cool their burning face. Iroh wasn’t going to cry over this.

They had gotten over Mako months ago.

Iroh had developed a crush on Mako upon meeting the man but they were smart enough and socially savvy enough to know that whatever was going on with him, Avatar Korra and Miss Sato was not something Iroh wanted to stick their own toe into. It was easy enough to get over him but then they had started working closely to create an evacuation plan for the city, something they worked on, on and off, for three years.

Iroh’s crush had flared back up to near painful levels after spending so much time with Mako. It took nearly three years but Iroh finally worked up the courage to give Mako their number.

Maybe Iroh was too vague when they told Mako to give them a call sometime, but talking to people they liked, even just ones Iroh wanted to be friends with, made them extremely nervous. It’s why to this day, Iroh’s only real friends consisted of their sister and little cousin, Jinora.

Iroh had waited by the phone the entire first day, and panicked about a missed call the second and third days while at work. The fourth day Iroh had double checked their phone number, to make sure they had given Mako the right one. By the end of the first week Iroh’s spirits had dropped slightly, but they still held out hope that maybe Mako had lost it or forgot about it. He would just call Iroh when he finally found it again.

That hope dissolved slowly over the next two months before what happened with Kuvira shattered it completely. Rather, what shattered it completely had been President Moon’s wedding.

Iroh had seen Mako standing near Prince Wu or King Wu, Iroh still wasn’t sure the man’s title was at the time. Iroh figured now had been the best time to ask Mako about not calling, when they overheard Mako and Wu’s conversation.

Iroh took one look at the expression on Mako’s face as he looked at Wu and quickly left the wedding.

Iroh had never felt more stupid and hurt in their life, until now.

They glanced over at the phone. Iroh had thought maybe, just maybe Mako had been tidying up his house and came across the scrap of paper. Whatever he had with Wu ultimately didn’t work out, so he figured maybe he’d try giving Iroh a call, even after so long of radio silence, to finally ask Iroh on a date.

Iroh was slightly embarrassed at the thoughts that raced through their head for the few seconds they thought Mako was going to ask them out. Iroh had really contemplated canceling on their family if it meant one date with the man.

Then those contemplations shattered when Iroh realized it was a professional call. Mako wasn’t calling to ask Iroh out, he was calling because he needed them. No, he was really calling because Avatar Korra needed them, and every one of her friends was there to hear Iroh sound like an absolute idiot.

Iroh thought they had gotten over Mako months ago, apparently, they had only tricked themself into thinking so.

Iroh sat up at their desk and took a deep breath. What happened, had happened and there was no use stressing over it. Iroh would just have to suck it up and really move on this time.

That was going to be hard with the man, and his friends, hijacking Iroh’s family vacation. Iroh couldn’t figure out what possessed them to invite the group, but they certainly couldn’t take it back now.

Iroh’s mother wouldn’t be happy with them. Hopefully she would be asleep when they got there. Iroh had intended to leave out early this morning but they had gotten stalled on a few last-minute things, as such their time at Ember Islands had been cut by a day, technically two as the last day they were there was only a half day.

Iroh would spend the second week of vacation exploring Republic City, getting into trouble and causing mayhem. Ursa was supposedly joining them that week, too.

Iroh finally stood and gathered up their things. They didn’t pack much as most of their clothes in the city were uniforms. They were already wearing one of the three outfits they had that weren’t uniforms or too hot for the Fire Nation. Firebenders could regulate their temperature to an extent, but summer in the Fire Nation proved too wild a beast to fight. 

Truthfully, Iroh planned to forget shirts were even a thing the second they hit the islands, but Republic City, and in all honesty the rest of the world, had issues with nudity and bare skin. Iroh didn’t get the taboo the world had, but they were raised in the Fire Nation where less clothing was encouraged at all times, unless you needed to dress professional. If they weren’t going to be around their family, Iroh wouldn’t hesitate to spend the days at the nude beaches on the far side of the island.

Iroh finally left and made their way to the airbase. They saw the family airship waiting for them at the very end of the tarmac. Iroh waved here and there at a few of the soldiers running around that they knew.

They didn’t have to wait long before someone finally showed up, Iroh just wished Mako hadn’t been the first. They didn’t want to stand in silence next to the man.

Luckily, Avatar Korra and Miss Sato soon followed him.

“Thanks, for this,” Avatar Korra said, as she approached.

“Think nothing of it,” Iroh said, tipping their head towards her. “My family is always happy to help the Avatar.”

It was true and they had told her a few times before, but if Iroh was being completely, honest, it wasn’t like they had a choice. Iroh's grandfather proclaimed the family, friends of the Avatar and if there was one nation that couldn’t act in defiance to the Avatar, it was the Fire Nation.

Those were the rules, no assisting in or starting wars, no interference in other countries’ laws even if they are dumb, no playing favorites despite being related to several world leaders, and always help the Avatar when asked.

Iroh nearly broke that first one trying to complete the second one. Their mother had yelled at them for that but Iroh still insisted that technically they weren’t assisting in a war as the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation but as a General in the United Nation’s military. Their mother tore them a new one over that, proclaiming that they were always acting as the Crown Prince.

The rules still contradicted one another.

The other two rules had also been blatantly broken by Iroh. They weren’t a fan of them. They were a General of the Untied Republic. If they couldn’t get involved in the country’s politics then there was a problem. They still didn’t see how the country had loop-holed Iroh into the position after the United Republic became an independent nation. Before it was simple, Iroh was technically a General of the Fire Nation on loan to the United Nation, whose military was made up of donated military from the rest of the world.

After they gained independence, a lot of random hoop jumps were made for them to keep the military they had. Including making all members of the military citizens of Republic City without telling them. Iroh somehow ended up with a duel citizenship they didn’t apply for, so technically it was not interfering in foreign politics for them to yell at Republic City about their questionable laws.

Iroh also wasn’t about to tell GranGran no when she asked for something, so yeah, sometimes they favored the Southern Water Tribe over other countries, but so did their dad.

The rules were stupid.

Iroh looked down at their watch and timed the trip. If Bolin and Miss Beifong showed up soon, they would make it at the time Iroh told their grandfather they would be there.

The two missing people soon showed up, Bolin waving loudly in a way that made Iroh smile faintly. Being tied to the man for hours on end made him grow on you, just a bit.

“Is this everyone then?” Iroh asked, already knowing the answer.

“It should be,” Avatar Korra joked. Iroh shot her a strained smile. It better be because, Iroh was already going to be in trouble for just these five. Iroh turned and gestured them onto the airship.

With the ramp lifted the ship wasted little time lifting into the air and taking off. “We should be in the Fire Nation by sundown, their time,” Iroh stated. “My Granddad should still be awake at that time, so as to not surprise him with your visit first thing in the morning.”

Iroh made their way over to the self-service bar and poured themself a glass of wine, before plopping down gracelessly onto the circular sofa in the middle of the ship. Iroh realized the other five on the ship were staring at them oddly.

“You can sit down,” they said, turning their head upside down on the seat to look at the others.

“I’ve just never seen you so relaxed before,” Avatar Korra said. “Kind of threw me off.”

“Yeah,” Iroh said, realizing they had once again come across as a stuck-up, pompous jerk to a group of people, “being the youngest General in history means you have to act like someone jammed a stick up your rear to be taken even slightly serious. My sister hates my General face as she calls it, says she can’t see the dork behind it. She’s such a nice person.”

“Really, because calling someone a dork doesn’t seem nice,” Bolin pointed out.

Iroh squinted over at him. “I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not. If you are serious, my sister is going to eat someone as literal as you alive. If you’re joking, she’s going to be your new best friend,” they said.

Iroh’s sister was an odd one, in all the opposite ways Iroh themself was an odd one. She didn’t really understand fully when what she said was rude, she just kind of threw words out into the world with little thought. She never said anything truly hateful, it’s just that she never really understood some people didn’t really want honesty when they asked for it.

“What’s your sister’s name General?” Miss Beifong asked.

“Ursa,” Iroh replied, “she was named after my paternal grandmother, much like I was named after my Granddad’s Uncle. You do realize my name isn’t General right? You can call me Iroh when I’m not in uniform.”

“Ah, yes, of course, Iroh,” Miss Beifong said, or rather Opal if Iroh was taking their own advice, awkwardly emphasizing their name without their title.  
“So,” Asami said, to break the silence that fell over the room, “what holiday are we celebrating?”

“The Fire Days Festival,” Iroh replied. “It’s a festival dedicated to the day when the eternal flame was first given to the Sun Warriors. Now its more of an excuse to wear masks, get drunk, eat as much food as you can and see who can blow themselves up with fireworks the quickest. It’s usually only a day but every holiday on Ember Island is a full week affair.”

“One of your soldiers said you had two weeks off though?” Korra asked.

“Yeah,” Iroh said, mischief in their voice, “that’s called a recovery week.”

“A recovery week?” Bolin asked.

“Oh, trust me,” Iroh said, with a smirk, “if you get invested in the festivities, you’ll need one. I still have a burn scar on my leg from where my sister thought it would be funny to slip a lit firecracker down my swim shorts. Our mom was angrier about how we nearly burned down the tree in front of our vacation home than the fact that my sister nearly exploded my junk off.”

Bolin and Korra burst out laughing and even Opal couldn’t hold back a giggle at that.

“She almost,” Korra started, “she almost ended the monarchy right there, didn’t she?”

Iroh laughed themself at that. “She tried her hardest to make sure her kids were the only kids around to rule,” Iroh joked in return. “Not that she really needed to, if I have any kids, they will be adopted, so unless my mom changes the laws, my sister’s kids will rule.”

“Oh?” Asami said, “Why?”

“Ah, because I’m gay?” Iroh said, narrowing their eyes slightly, they thought everyone knew that. Iroh’s eyes widened in realization. “Oh, right, I forgot. My whole country knows my sexuality. It’s never been hidden and truthfully it wasn’t hidden when I met you guys the first time but President Rakio wasn’t the most, gay friendly person in the world so I started keeping it to myself.”

“Wait, you’re gay?” Bolin asked. Iroh stared at him in trepidation for a moment, wondering why he was asking.

“Yes,” Iroh replied. Surely, he wouldn’t be homophobic, with two bisexual friends. Iroh was also ninety percent sure Mako was also bisexual. There was no way Bolin was about to say something bad.

“We were tied together for hours and you just didn’t tell me?” Bolin said. Iroh’s heart stopped for a minute. Bolin couldn’t possibly be mad at them for that. “I told you everything about me! We shared our favorite colors and our aspirations in life and you just didn’t think to tell me you were gay?”

Iroh let out a breath they didn’t realize they were holding and started laughing instead.

“It’s not funny!” Bolin said, “We were sharing and you hid something!”

“I’m so sorry,” Iroh said, between laughs. “Next time we are tied together I will tell you my whole life story from birth, deal?”

“You better,” Bolin said with a fake pout.

“Do you plan to be tied to Bolin anytime soon?” Korra asked in good humor.

“I didn’t exactly plan to be tied to him the first time,” Iroh answered.

“How did you three get caught anyway?” Mako asked. He kept glancing at the bar behind Iroh.

“You can have whatever you want from the bar,” Iroh said, hoping to distract from the question.

It didn’t work, and finally Asami caved. “We ran into an electric fence,” she said.

The others started laughing again as Mako got up to pour himself a drink.

“You know, General,” Korra said, “You’re actually pretty cool. I wish you had been more available because you would have made a great addition to Team Avatar.”  
Iroh stared at her for a minute. “If you told me I could join Team Avatar I would retire on the spot. I’m not even kidding. I have wanted to fight along side you for years now,” Iroh admitted.

“Really?” Korra asked. “Okay, trial run then, for the next week you’ll be temporary Team Avatar Status then we will re-review your application.”

Iroh snorted slightly but nodded. Inside they were dying though. Iroh had a hard time making friends and they had wanted to be Korra’s friend for a while. Iroh knew she was joking but they hoped, just maybe, the group would consider them a friend after this vacation.

\----Bolin----

Bolin wasn’t surprised at all to see how relaxed Iroh was, despite how much it threw his friends for a loop.

After being tied together he thought he knew a fair bit about the General. Bolin knew their favorite color was yellow, because it was a happy color and wasn’t as prominent as reds, golds, and blacks were in the Fire Nation. He knew the General had a weakness for Chile Powder Mangos and would eat them anytime they got the chance. 

Iroh had a little sister they were extremely close to, though Bolin only just learned her name was Ursa today. Iroh’s father was military, and until Iroh joined up, he had been fairly absent from their childhood. Iroh and Ursa were dancers as kids, and often adapted their bending to the dances they performed. 

Iroh’s greatest role models in life were their grandfather, Ambassador Sokka, and Sokka’s wife Suki. Iroh wanted to be a Kyoshi Warrior when they grew up and for a time wore a pint-sized uniform around, everywhere they went. 

Bolin’s pretty sure he is the only one of the group who knows that much about Iroh, though Asami may remember.

Which was why Bolin was so surprised to learn Iroh was gay. He supposed it had never come up, as Bolin himself was straight, and didn’t really think to bring that topic up. Though, admittedly the topic of Iroh’s genderfluidity did come up. Iroh didn’t mind male pronouns, though gender-neutral ones were preferred, which Bolin supposed was why they didn’t mention it to the rest of the group along with their sexuality. Either that or Iroh forgot it wasn’t common knowledge in Republic City like it was in the Fire Nation.

Currently conversation had slowly come to a stop, after Korra declared Iroh on a trial run. Bolin kind of hoped she was serious, because Iroh really was a cool person.

Iroh was currently stretched out over the sofa like a continent feline-hybrid. They had their feet propped up on the arm rest and their head rested really close to Asami’s lap.

Asami and Korra seemed content to curl up together for the rest of the ride and Opal was leaning against Bolin trying to do the same.

The only one seemingly still tensed up was Bolin’s brother. Mako still seemed just as stressed as when they had left the city. He knew his brother had called Beifong to get the trip cleared, he wondered if something she said had him strung out. Lin didn’t usually stress his brother out, if anything she usually de-escalated his freak outs.

Mako was usually high strung so it could also just be that.

Bolin hoped this vacation would help his brother. Mako probably needed it more than anyone else on the team.

“You good bro?” Bolin asked, knowing his brother probably wouldn’t answer truthfully with others around. He still felt the need to ask.

“Yeah, why?” Mako asked. He looked slightly startled as if not expecting the question. The rest of the group’s attention was drawn at Bolin’s question and now Mako looked uncomfortable.

Iroh at the least had the sense to turn back to their contemplation of the celling.

“You just seemed stressed,” Bolin said, with a shrug. He was worried about his brother. Mako took too much on himself at one time.

Korra laughed. “Mako’s always stressed about something,” she said. “He’s probably just tired, we’ve been running around all day.”

“I’m fine, Bo,” Mako said, though unlike Korra he offered no explanation for his behavior.

Bolin huffed. “Well, I hope this vacation does you some good at the least,” he replied.

Mako shrugged clearly trying to end the conversation. Bolin let it drop until an idea occurred to him.

“You know what you need, Mako?” Bolin asked, once again attracting every one’s attention. “You need a girlfriend, maybe you can find one while we’re on Ember Island.”

Bolin was not expecting the mixed reaction that statement brought up.

Korra laughed obnoxiously.

“Bolin,” Opal said, “I don’t think it would be fair for Mako to find a girlfriend while on vacation.”

“Opal’s right,” Asami said, “It’s also Mako’s decision on whether or not he wishes to be in a relationship right now. Relationships aren’t pick me ups. He needs to actually be invested. A fling might be possible but having dated Mako, I think I can confidently say, flings aren’t his style.”

Iroh’s face turned a reddish color. Iroh had an odd expression on their face as they turned their head away. They looked upset by something, but it was probably unrelated. Iroh wouldn’t be invested in Mako’s dating life like the others.

Mako’s reaction was the worst. He sputtered slightly before he shut down. “I don’t need a girlfriend Bolin, maybe I just need to be left alone for five minutes,” Mako said, before immediately deflating. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Sorry, too,” Bolin replied, slightly surprised. “Didn’t mean to cause such trouble. I just want you to be happy, bro.”

Mako smiled slightly at him before contemplating his empty glass.

“Ember Island is just up ahead for anyone who wants a bird’s eye view,” Iroh said, abruptly. They sounded tired as they said it, and Bolin hoped Iroh got what they needed form this vacation too. Officers and Military were both high stress jobs, so Bolin could see how they would both be tired.

The airship took longer to land than it did to take off and Bolin was rather tired of being in one. When they were finally told they could disembark, Iroh took the lead.

Iroh startled the group when they threw down their suitcase and practically ran down the tarmac. Bolin couldn’t help the dorky smile that spread across his face as he realized why Iroh had taken off.

The General practically slammed into Lord Zuko, nearly toppling the older man to the ground. Bolin could hear Lord Zuko laughing as he pulled his grandchild into a hug and dropped a kiss on the top of Iroh’s hair.

The group caught up to them, Korra having grabbed Iroh’s suitcase.

Iroh pulled away from Lord Zuko, somewhat, the two still had their arms thrown over each other’s shoulder.

“Sorry,” Iroh said sheepishly. “I haven’t seen my Granddad in over a year.”

“Iroh,” Lord Zuko said slowly, “is there something you wish to tell me?”

“Oh, right,” Iroh said, finally pulling away from Lord Zuko completely. “Avatar Korra needs your assistance on something. I told her she could kidnap you after our vacation and invited her along. I would have called to tell you but you think phones are out to get you and as such do not have one here for me to have called.”

Lord Zuko looked at his grandchild with an unamused face. “I am not afraid of phones,” he said.

“No,” Iroh agreed. “You’re afraid of satomobiles, you distrust paper money, and you think phones are a conspiracy. I did not say you were afraid of them.”

Lord Zuko narrowed his eyes at Iroh. “Brat,” he finally said, cuffing Iroh on the head.

“So, uh, where’s the house?” Korra asked awkwardly.

“Over that way, it is only a short walk,” Lord Zuko explained, leading them in that direction.

“It’s two miles,” Iroh whispered, “up and around a volcano.”

Iroh laughed at the looks the group gave them and jogged to catch up with Lord Zuko.

“I will leave a note for your mother so she does not run across them unexpectedly in the morning,” Lord Zuko said, when Iroh and the group finally caught up. “You will need to share a room with someone. Either one of them or your sister, for us to have enough space for everyone. I’m not sure how you would like to divide yourselves up so feel free to change what I suggest, but Bolin and Opal can take Lu Ten’s old room. It looks like a teenager’s room because that was how old he was the last time he stayed there, but the room’s been cleaned, just don’t mess with too much. My cousin may have been dead for a long time but I still haven’t been able to bring myself to go through his stuff, neither had his father before he died.”

“Speaking of my Uncle, Korra and Asami can stay in his old room. Izumi already went through everything in there so don’t worry about invading his things. They aren’t there anymore,” Lord Zuko said. “Mako, I suppose you can stay in Iroh’s room either with them or Iroh may choose to sleep in their sister’s room with her. They have mini sleepovers all the time for no reason anyway. It’s up to them.”

“I’ll probably stay in Ursa’s room but for tonight I can share with Mako. It’s later than I thought,” Iroh said, looking around at the night sky, “and I don’t want to wake her up.”

Lord Zuko hummed. “No, you just want to keep an old man who needs his rest out of bed,” he said.

“Hey, you could have sent someone else to come pick me up,” Iroh said with a shrug. 

“I should have sent my sister,” Lord Zuko joked.

Iroh paused, Bolin nearly crashing into their back. “Is she here then?” Iroh asked.

“She is,” Lord Zuko replied.

“Korra,” Iroh said, “don’t turn your back on her.”

Iroh said it as a joke but they also seemed slightly serious.

“Azula apologized for that,” Lord Zuko said, shaking his head.

Bolin was absolutely fascinated by the back and forth between the two. Lord Zuko seemed a lot less intimidating with his grandchild around.

They finally reached the house, all of them nearly ready to drop form exhaustion.

They were all a bit bleary eyed, which was why Bolin screamed when something dropped from the roof onto Iroh’s head.

Iroh themself just sighed. “Hi, Ursa, how are you this evening?” they asked.

“Way happier now that my favorite victim, I mean my loving older sibling, has come home,” Ursa replied with a laugh, before sliding down Iroh’s back.

“It’s good you’re awake,” Iroh said with a laugh, “I’m going to need to bunk with you, we have way too many people trying to stay in this house.”

“Oh, did you invite you’re Republic City Harem?” Ursa said, peering at them over Iroh’s shoulder. “There’s more women here then I was expecting.”

“I don’t have a harem,” Iroh said, rolling their eyes. “Avatar Korra needed Grandad for something so I brought her with me.”

“Huh,” Ursa said, staring at Korra. “She’s not very tall, is she.”

“Ursa!” Iroh shouted. “Not polite.”

Korra huffed. “I don’t need to be tall to beat you in a fight,” she snapped back.

Ursa seemed pleased at that reaction. “I like her,” she said. “Let’s go Iroh, beautiful genes only get one so far, we need our beauty sleep too, and I have three years of gossip for you.”

Iroh sighed, but followed behind their sister. “Tell me Iroh, how many bobby-pins are holding up that top knot?” she asked, before their voices faded around the corner.

An idea bloomed in Bolin’s mind, but he kept it to himself, as Lord Zuko lead them each to their rooms.

Korra and Asami’s room was next to Bolin and Opal’s which made since if this Lu Ten person was Lord Zuko’s Uncle’s son. Mako was led further down the hall towards a door at the end.

“Iroh and Ursa, are across here, if you need them,” Lord Zuko said, pointing at the door across from Mako’s temporary room. 

They nodded and bid him goodnight, before dispersing into their rooms.

It was only as the door closed behind him, and Opal flopped on the bed, that Bolin finally gave voice to his idea.

“Okay, here me out, but what if I set Mako up with Princess Ursa?” Bolin asked, quickly continuing before Opal could shoot the idea down. “She’s rich, so it’s not like she can’t easily visit Mako in Republic City. Plus, she’s his type. Totally out of his league and drop dead gorgeous. He’d love her!”

“I don’t know Bolin,” Opal said. “Mako doesn’t seem like he wants to date anyone right now, and he might not like Princess Ursa, we just met her. Maybe let Mako figure himself out on his own.”

“But that will take forever,” Bolin whined. “Mako doesn’t know how feelings work and Iroh said Princess Ursa doesn’t either so that makes two of them, see they would work out.”

“I don’t think two people with odd views of emotions in a relationship is a good idea, but,” Opal said, cutting Bolin off from interrupting her, “if they seem to like each other, I will help you set them up. I want Mako to be happy too.”

“Yes,” Bolin said, wrapping Opal up in his arms. “You’re the best!”

Opal giggled before pulling him into a deep kiss, then pulling away. “Do you feel slightly awkward doing this in a dead man’s bed, because I kind of do?” Opal asked.

“Just a bit,” Bolin replied finally looking around the room.

Lord Zuko hadn’t lied, it did in fact look like a teenager lived in here just last week. The bed sat in the center of the far wall with a desk to the left of it and a wardrobe to the right. The doors to the wardrobe were open, showing a few outfits hanging up but most of the man’s clothes would have been elsewhere.

A small dragon skeleton replica hung from the celling over the desk. The left side wall of the room was covered in drawings, one of which sat unfinished on the desk. That was slightly creepy. Lu Ten must have left it in a hurry at the end of his last vacation, never realizing he wouldn’t get to finish it the next time he came here.

The bedsheets were a pale red color and a fire-slug plushie sat in the middle of the pile of pillows. Bolin picked it up and placed it on the desk. He turned it around to look out the window, feeling as if someone was watching him through its fake eyes.

“You know what?” Bolin asked. “Maybe in the morning we should ask the others if you can room with Korra and Asami while I room with Mako, because this room, is kind of sad and creepy.”

“Agreed,” Opal said, pulling Bolin closer when he sat on the bed. The two of them ended up sleeping curled together on top of the covers, too disturbed by the vibes of the room to get under them. It was a good thing they packed blankets.


	2. Day 2: The Fire Nation Royal Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ursa catches up with Iroh after years apart, Asami learns the Fire Nation Royal Family isn't what she thought they would be and Mako gets a new wardrobe and catches feelings.

\----Ursa----

Ursa could feel the moon reaching its highest point in the night sky and knew she was going to regret staying up as late as she was. She didn’t lie when she told Iroh they needed their beauty sleep but she hadn’t seen her older sibling in years.

Ursa had no issue keeping Iroh awake all night, letting them back in on court gossip and her latest relationship qualms, as she slowly painted her nails. Ursa had recently started dating someone from Republic City but she was keeping it hush, hush until they were more serious than the long-distance thing they had going on for now.

Iroh only seemed vaguely interested in what she was saying.

“Ro?” She asked. “Are you okay? You don’t seem like you’re listening to me.”

“Sorry,” Iroh said, shaking their head. “I’m just, off. What were you saying about a new paramour?”

“I’ll get back to that later,” Ursa said. “What’s going on in your life? You seem upset by something.”

Iroh bit their lip and Ursa sighed. With Iroh, sometimes waiting them out was all you could do. Instead of applying pressure, Ursa pulled off Iroh’s head piece before raking her hand through their hair. A bobby-pin came loose and Ursa laughed as the top knot collapsed, free of its prison.

She found a total of twelve bobby-pins in Iroh’s hair.

“That’s five less than last time,” she said, “you’re getting better at this.”

“Nah,” Iroh replied. “My hair’s just longer. I’m growing it back out.”

Ursa paused for a minute before smiling. “That’s great!” she said, before her brow furrowed. “I though the military made you keep it short? I mean dad never followed that rule but you always did.”

Iroh hesitated before softly saying, “President Moon called me into her office about a month ago. She wanted to talk about military policy and if I saw anything that needed to be changed. I went into it with a similar mind to how I interacted with President Raiko. I kept my identities to myself and kept it to professional topics but then she changed the conversation herself to sexuality and then we got slightly tipsy. After our talk she said she was going to change a few rules about the military.”

Ursa nodded for Iroh to continue.

“She took away the hair length rule, if women don’t need to keep their hair short, men or anyone in between or otherwise, don’t either. She also allows us to put gender-neutral pronouns in our files. I was slightly hesitant to do so, worried in four years another Raiko might be elected but, I think I’m going to dig my heels in on this.” Iroh said.

“Everyone should be afraid of that, you can walk in impressively high heels,” Ursa joked, screwing the cap on her nail polish.

Iroh laughed. “Yeah, sure,” they said, “but really, I’m just going to use these four years, and maybe more, to let people know who I am and what I stand for. So, in four years, maybe I’ll have built that identity up enough that even another Raiko, would have a hard time tearing me down without a fight. If not, I guess I’ll just retire. I’m just, really tired of living in the shadows on one side of the ocean when on the other, I’m out and happy.”

Ursa smiled before dragging them into a hug. “I’m so proud of you and I’m extremely glad you won’t let that fuddy-duddy city bring you down!” Ursa said. An idea stuck her as she looked over her collection of nail polish.

Ursa looked over her reddish toned polishes before choosing a dark baby pink one that Iroh often stole form her, even though they had their own. Ursa debated over the many, many blue polishes she had before ultimately choosing the bright blue one she had used on her own nails. Ursa was about to slide the rest away when a silver polish caught her eye and another idea stuck her.

She grabbed it and a black color as well before dismissing her polishes and turning to her cautious sibling.

“So,” Ursa said, pulling Iroh’s hand into her lap and painting their thumb pink. She would paint the other one blue. They didn’t kick up a fuss about it, so Ursa proceeded with her plan. “Is your love life looking better than mine at the moment?”

“Nope,” Iroh replied quickly. Ursa looked up at them. It was hard for her to distinguish people’s facial expressions but she thinks she may have stepped on their foot about something.

“That doesn’t sound good?” Ursa asked. Iroh usually corrected her when she read their emotions wrong and this time was no exception.

“It’s not,” Iroh said, rubbing the back of their neck with the hand Ursa wasn’t currently painting.

Ursa waited Iroh out again as she painted their nails. The thumb and middle finger were pink with the pointer and pinky fingers blue, the opposite would be painted on the other hand. The ring fingers would be painted black. Ursa had a small nail design tool to try and paint lightning strikes across the black nail later.

“I just finally got up the courage to give a guy my number after nearly three years of pinning over them and they didn’t call me until a year later and when they did, it wasn’t to ask me out, so I’m kind of just, feeling really stupid right now. I thought I was over it but, apparently not.” Iroh finally said, out of the blue.

Ursa looked up at them, seeing their eyes water. “I’m sorry that happened to you,” Ursa said, feeling genuinely bad for them, “but you can do better than whoever that loser is anyway.”

Iroh didn’t cheer up and Ursa realized she read the room wrong, when her sibling started actually crying. Ursa pulled them into a hug and tried to back petal. “I mean, I’m sure they are a great guy and, um,” Ursa trailed off, really not sure where to go with her statement.

“I was just so happy when he finally called, as if someone calling you a year later as an afterthought was supposed to be a good thing. I just really wanted him to like me back,” Iroh said, their words slightly garbled due to their tears. “I don’t know what I did wrong.”

That Ursa did have a response to. “Nothing, Ro,” she said. “You haven’t done anything wrong. If he doesn’t like you back, that’s his loss. I don’t know what else to say.”

Iroh nodded into her shoulder and Ursa relaxed. She continued to hold Iroh tightly as they continued to cry but now, she knew it was okay that she didn’t say anything.

Ursa had always struggle with expressing her emotions and understanding the emotions of others. Emotional moments made her uncomfortable sometimes, particularly when she felt the need to say something but didn’t know how. Her grandmother Mai, had come up with the solution.

“When you don’t know what to say,” her grandmother had told her, brushing her hair back from her face, from where it stuck to her frustrated tears, “just tell someone. You don’t always need to give words of comfort, sometimes you just need to be there.”

Ursa took the words to heart, and her family did too. Maybe other people might not know what Ursa meant when she said something like that, but her family did, which made life a lot easier. Over the years, Ursa had gone from using the comment only for emotional moments, to using it in general, even for mundane questions.

Iroh had fallen asleep on her shoulder. Ursa slowly leaned them up and laid them down on the ground. She finished painting their other hand before adding the lightning details and joining her older sibling in sleeping on the floor, even if her bed was right next to her.

She didn’t sleep long before the sounds of people moving through the house woke her up. Iroh was staring up at her and Ursa realized she had used them as a pillow last night and had them pinned.

“Sorry,” she said, standing up.

“You’re fine,” Iroh said. “Sorry for crying on you last night.”

“You’re fine,” Ursa repeated, moving towards her closet. “You needed a good cry. Oh, your bags from home, that you had me pack, are in here because I was too lazy to carry them across the hall and the servants thought they were mine.”

“Oh well,” Iroh said. “It worked out anyway.”

They bent over to start digging through their bag when Ursa blocked them.

“What’s today feel like?” Ursa asked.

Iroh shrugged. “Nothing really, why?” they asked.

“I want to twin,” she said, pulling out the outfit the two of them shared. They had argued over it when their stylist had first shown it to them, until their mother made them either agree on something or get rid of it. They agreed to get it in different colors and called it a day.

They had a few outfits like that, but this was the only beachy one they shared.

Having the same outfits often led to them accidently twinning but sometimes they did it on purpose. Having not seen Iroh since the Kurvia mess started, Ursa was kind of having separation anxiety and was taking full advantage of Iroh being here now.

Iroh stared at the skirt and crop top combo for a minute, tilting their head this way and that, before nodding.

It was a simple outfit at the end of the day, a knee length flowy skirt with a long sheer covering that tapered in the back, paired with a crop top that had a jeweled neckline that hooked around the neck like a necklace, as well as a jeweled hemline at the bottom. It could double serve as a bathing suit if you didn’t care about the jewels getting wet, which neither of them did.

Normally Ursa, being a waterbender, tried to add as much blue to her wardrobe as possible, while Iroh, being Iroh, tried to add as much blue to their wardrobe as possible for Iroh reasons. In this instance though, Ursa’s outfit was pure red, while Iroh’s was pure blue. Sometimes you just had to trick the masses to make sure they were paying attention.

Ursa handed over her silver armbands to Iroh, knowing they liked the delicate silver chains. Ursa had a gold pair that matched so they would still be twinning.

Iroh didn’t do anything with their hair or put on any make-up other than the lip gloss they stole off her vanity, and after deliberating for a moment, Ursa decided against it as well. There was no telling if swimming was on the agenda for today, better to not risk it.

She did steal her lip gloss back, kicking Iroh in the butt as they walked out the door. Iroh glared back at her but kept walking. It was a friendly glare though, so she didn’t worry about it.

They headed towards the kitchen, knowing on vacations their family usually cooked for themselves.

“Uh,” someone said, as Iroh walked into the kitchen. Iroh paused and Ursa had to shove them lightly out of the way to get into the kitchen herself.

Avatar Korra was looking Iroh up and down, which was rude, as Ursa was standing here looking pretty too. Then Ursa registered the uncomfortable look on Iroh’s face.

She looked around the room for the source and realized it was Avatar Korra, as well as her friends.

“What?” Ursa asked, watching the Avatar to see what she would do.

“Um,” Avatar Korra replied. “You, uh, look good General.”

“Thanks,” Iroh said, shyly. “I guess I forgot to tell you about this when I told you my sexuality. Bolin and Mako already knew, so I just forgot. I’m genderfluid, I don’t really do the whole, male and female thing, so, yeah. I’d appreciate now that you know if you could use gender-neutral pronouns, please?”

Iroh’s voice broke slightly on the last word and Ursa suddenly fully realized what was happening. She glared at the Avatar daring her to say something rude to Iroh.  
“Uh, cool,” Avatar Korra replied. She looked Iroh up and down again before finally noticing Ursa. Her face turned bright red as she looked at the two of them.

Ursa laughed at the Avatar’s face, before moving to the fridge. Iroh came up behind her and snatched the mango juice from the fridge the second she opened it.

“Hey, no, share,” she shouted trying to reach it, where Iroh held it above their heads. They had an inch on her, but jumping quickly remedied the issue. She grabbed the juice jug from them and booked it to the other side of the island, Iroh followed her. The two of them continued fighting over the juice jug to the amusement of Avatar Korra and her friends up until their mother came into the room.

“Stop,” she said, grabbing the juice jug from Iroh. Ursa was surprised she had actually come out of her rooms not dressed in royal regalia, with their unexpected visitors present. She pulled two cups from the cabinet, poured the juice into the cups and placed the juice up.

Ursa went to reach for a glass, but Iroh pulled her back shaking their head as their mother took one glass and handed the other to their father who followed behind her.

“What!” Ursa demanded. “Not fair.”

Iroh laughed before pulling the juice jug back out. They poured a glass and Ursa pouted thinking she was getting ripped off again. She was surprised when Iroh handed her the glass, up until they proceeded to drink directly from the jug.

“Iroh!” she shouted alongside her parents.

Iroh just laughed before plopping down next to one of the Avatar’s friends, the one with a fire ferret on his shoulder.

“I just woke up,” the guy said, “so maybe I’m still asleep, but is that Bumi?”

“No,” Ursa’s father said, “I’m Lee, Bumi’s twin brother.”

Ursa giggled while her mother shook her head.

“Sadly, yes, it is him. Why?” she asked, pushing Ursa lightly out of her way as she moved to the stove top.

“Um, what’s he doing here?” the guy asked.

“I live here, Bolin,” Ursa’s father replied. “This is my vacation home.”

“What?” the petit girl on the other side of the guy, apparently Bolin, asked.

“He’s our dad,” Iroh finally answered.

Ursa’s father jokingly leered, before saying, “I married rich, momma didn’t raise a fool.”

“No,” Ursa’s mother said. “Just an idiot.”

“Your idiot,” he replied, joining his wife at the stove top.

“Sadly,” she fired back.

“Ew, no flirting,” Ursa said, at the same time Iroh said, “Please be normal.”

She turned back to the group as the smell of her parent’s cooking filled the air. Apparently, her father was a vegetarian now, Ursa was surprised he was keeping to it.

“So, I don’t know who half of you are,” Ursa said.

“Asami Sato, CEO and owner of Future Industries,” Iroh said, gesturing to the pretty woman next to the Avatar, “Opal Beifong, Suyin’s only daughter,” they gestured to the petit girl next to the Bolin guy, “Bolin and Mako, they are brothers,” here they gestured towards Bolin and the Fire Nation looking guy sat between Opal and Avatar Korra. “I already told them to forget titles while here, let’s see how brave they get over the course of the week, so far I’m just Iroh but I’m really wondering if any of them are brave enough to call mom by her first name.”

Ursa nearly snorted her juice up her nose, as her grandfather finally made it into the cramped kitchen, his sister and her wife coming in behind him.

Her grandfather reached for the juice on the table but Iroh licked it again in challenge and he backed off.

\----Asami----

Asami wasn’t sure what to make of the Royal family. They certainly weren’t what she was expecting.

Having met Iroh, Fire Lord Izumi and Lord Zuko before, if told to describe the family, she would say serious, dedicated to their cause, extremely attractive and slightly intimidating, even to her.

Knowing Bumi was a part of their family, didn’t fit into that mold she had formed of them, however seeing the way they acted in a family environment, Bumi fit right in.

Asami supposed that made sense in the long run. Avatar Aang was known to be rather goofy when it suited him while Lord Zuko was known to be a bit high strung. If those two could be friends, there was no reason their families wouldn’t mesh together too.

They worked surprisingly well. Asami watched as Bumi and Fire Lord Izumi cooked breakfast, the two trading quips and the occasional playful push or shove here. Asami had honestly never seen Bumi so comfortable, it was only now, in his own home with his own family, that she realized how much his over the top behavior was an act.

He was still his odd self, just a softer version that Asami wasn’t familiar with.

While Asami didn’t know Fire Lord Izumi well, but the few times she did meet her, she had never seen the monarch smile but now that seemed to be all she was doing over by the stove as her husband kept trying to sneak random ingredients into her pan.

Then there was Lord Zuko himself, who seemed quite content to poke and prod his grandchildren. Iroh had already waved him off and now he was poking at his granddaughter who looked highly confused about their conversation.

He had walked in with two older women. At first Asami had assumed the first woman was his wife, but no, it was Lord Zuko’s sister, Princess Azula. Asami wasn’t sure what to make of her, mostly because she seemed perfectly content to ignore everyone seated in the room save for her wife, who had been the other woman.

Ursa was, unexpected, even after Iroh’s description of her. Asami could see where the woman could come off as rude to outsiders but so far, she simply reminded Asami of a closed off and extremely confused boy she used to date. Mako was still closed off and confused, but not nearly as much as he had been at eighteen.

Iroh surprised her the most. She really had not expected to see him, no them, dressed in a crop top so early in the morning. Honestly, she was so busy staring at their abs she completely missed the skirt until they were chasing their sister around the room.

Asami was thrown off when she realized Mako and Bolin hadn’t been surprised to learn of Iroh’s gender identity. They seemed to have already known. Asami supposed Mako knowing after three years of acquaintanceship, made sense, particularly with Iroh’s crush. Bolin on the other hand, confused her slightly until she vaguely remembered Iroh talking about wearing a Kyoshi uniform when they were younger and deciding they liked skirts better than pants.

Asami had tuned out at that point, focusing on something else, but Iroh must have continued talking about it because Bolin knew. Now that she thought back on it, both men had been using gender neutral pronouns for Iroh this entire time.

Food was finally placed on the table. Asami hesitated slightly not sure if the food was for everyone or just the family. When the entire family, including Princess Azula, stared at her, and her friends, without reaching for anything to eat themselves, Asami nearly facepalmed. Right, Fire Nation tradition dictated that the guests ate first, they were waiting on them.

Asami reached out to plate some food for herself, Korra following her lead. When all of them had food on their plates, the family plated their own food.

There was no conversation at the table for the longest time. The two groups sitting in awkward silence with one another before it was broken by an unlikely source.

“You’re the firebender who destroyed the Colossus, correct?” Princess Azula said, staring at Mako.

Asami saw Mako’s eyes go wide.

“Yes, ma’am,” Mako answered.

“Your highness,” Princess Azula corrected, “not ma’am. It doesn’t matter. It was an impressive bit of bending for someone untrained.”

Mako’s eyes narrowed slightly. Asami knew he hated when people dismissed him and Bolin for not being trained bending masters.

Princess Azula continued on as if there weren’t several people gesturing her to stop, including her wife.

“Rumors say you have scars from the battle,” she said. “I have personally never seen these lightning mark scars, though I have heard they are quite gruesome. I am of course the greatest lightning bender in the world, so I wouldn’t know about botched lightning bending attempts, though I would like to see your scars, just to have perspective.”

She looked at Mako expectantly as if that was a perfectly normal question to ask someone.

“Azula,” Lord Zuko said, reaching out to his sister.

“Mind your business ZuZu,” she said, swatting his hand away. “I’m trying to have a conversation with someone.”

“Is that what’s happening,” Mako muttered to himself, his face pointedly facing his bowl and not those around the table.

“Of course,” Princess Azula said. “What else would we be doing?”

“Azula considers herself well versed in the art of lightening bending, having mastered it at fourteen. She’s merely curious as to what lightning bending scars look like, for scholarly reasons,” Princess Azula’s wife said. Her voice rang out bubbly and Asami felt like smiling as she heard it. “She’s rather impressed with Detective Mako’s ability, she talks about the skill level needed all the time.”

“That’s what I already said, Ty Lee,” Princess Azula said, turning towards her wife. Ty Lee simply smiled at her before kissing her on the nose.

Princess Azula’s nose scrunched up in response but there was a slight smile on her face as she turned back to Mako.

“Well?” she asked, when Mako didn’t respond to her.

Mako shrugged, and rolled up the sleeve of his left arm. Asami had seen the burn marks many times before, but that didn’t make them look any better seeing them again. Mako’s arm was completely burned, no skin being spared. There were dark brown splotches which contrasted with the purple scar lines that framed them. They ran all the way up his arm to his shoulder in some places.

“Interesting,” Princess Azula said, leaning forward. She reached out, as if to touch Mako before pulling her hand back and continuing to examine the scar. “Has it faded any since you received it?”

“Only the way a scar heals,” Mako replied, rolling his sleeve back down. “It was red and inflamed when it first happened but now it’s just a scar. It doesn’t even really hurt anymore.”

Princess Azula hummed in reply, but that seemed to be the end of her participation in the conversation.

“What are your plans for today?” Lord Zuko asked, looking at his family, though mostly his grandkids.

“Probably, bum around the beaches,” Ursa said, “maybe go shopping. You guys can join us if you want?”

Ursa’s invitation seemed genuine but the tone of her voice sounded confused.

They accepted the invitation anyway.

“Zooms and I are probably going to go hiking and then catch dinner and a show, if you all wish to join us tonight, I think you might be amused by the play they have running right now,” Bumi said.

“I think I’ll pass,” Lord Zuko said, sniffing in distain.

“They re-did it, dad,” Fire Lord Izumi said. “It’s actually well thought out and professionally casted. I think you would like it.”

“I’m not watching a play of my friends and me, not after last time,” Lord Zuko replied.

“Wait, there’s a play about you?” Opal asked.

“Unfortunately,” Lord Zuko replied. “I’d rather not sit through a play that shoves my life’s mistakes in my face, even if it is historically accurate.”

“Maybe if you didn’t make so many mistakes in your life, a historically arcuate play wouldn’t do that to you,” Princess Azula said, looking at her nails.

“Yeah, well, you lost, so there,” Lord Zuko said, before getting up from the table. His sister glared at him as he left.

“Only because Katara cheated,” Princess Azula yelled.

“You tried to kill her with lightning,” Lord Zuko shouted back.

“You told me too!”

“I did not!”

“What no lightning today?” Princess Azula said, in a mocking tone.

Lord Zuko didn’t respond. Though Asami wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean.

“Ha, I win!” Princess Azula said. “That was fun, but Ty Lee and I have better places to be.”

She quickly stood up and left the room in an awkward silence.

“I really don’t know why Grandad keeps inviting her back. They may have made up but they still don’t like each other,” Iroh said.

“Futile hope,” Fire Lord Izumi replied. “I’m going to go talk to him. Bumi could you go get the car ready for us?”

Bumi made a face but nodded.

“My father-in-law makes us park the car half a mile away because he doesn’t like them,” Bumi explained to the questioning look Asami gave him.

“Is there something I could do to help?” Asami asked.

“If you can make Grandad less scared of technology, I will give you my entire wardrobe,” Ursa said. Asami nearly laughed before realizing Ursa was being serious.

Bumi soon left to go get the car and Korra barely waited till he was out the door to say, “That was so awkward!”

Iroh laughed. “Sorry,” they said, “my family is just like that. At least there’s no more assassination attempts.”

“That’s horrible,” Bolin replied.

“Eh,” Ursa said. “It is what it is. Are you guys ready to go?”

Asami and her friends nodded as they slowly left the dining room.

Iroh and Ursa took the lead. Korra seemed fascinated by this fact, staring at the back of both of them.

“I can’t be the only one who’s extremely attracted to these two?” Korra whispered to her friends. “Like Iroh is unfairly attractive, I already knew that but why is Fire Nation clothing so sexy?”

“There’s less of it,” Mako answered.

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Korra replied, when they reached a divide in the road. One way clearly led to the beaches and Asami was pretty sure the other led to the city center. “Hey, can we go shopping first? I kind of want to get some Fire Nation clothes.”

“Really?” Iroh said, leading them towards the city. Asami only just now realized neither sibling had put on shoes. “I’m surprised, most people from the Water Tribes are scandalized by our lack of clothing here, granted they would freeze to death if they wore what I’m wearing at the poles.”

“Okay, you caught me,” Korra said. “I want to see my girlfriend decked out in Fire Nation vacation attire like you two.”

Asami blushed but merely shook her head at her girlfriend. With Korra one needed to pick their battles, something Mako never learned in his relationship with her.

“I’d love to go shopping!” Bolin interjected loudly. “A few new outfits might be fun to have, right Mako? I’m sure Ursa can help you find something new to wear!”

Asami, Korra and Mako stared at Bolin in confusion.

Opal groaned and buried her face in her hands.

“Um, I guess?” Mako asked, looking around for assistance.

Asami noticed a curious look come over Korra’s face, before her eyes lit up.

“You know what, Bolin’s right, maybe what Mako needs is a wardrobe pick me up! He’s been wearing the same stuff for four years now. I’m sure Iroh can help him find some new styles,” Korra said, dragging Mako over towards the General.

“I don’t know, shouldn’t we get Ursa’s opinion on his style?” Bolin asked. 

Asami noticed the royal siblings trade a confused look in the background.

“Um,” Iroh interjected. “Not sure how necessary a wardrobe change is for Mako but you could ask for both of our help?”

“It’s necessary,” Korra said, pushing Mako forward until he tumbled into Iroh’s arms.

“Um, sorry,” Mako said, standing back up straight a blush on his face.

“Accidents happen,” Iroh said, smiling softly.

“I’m not really seeing what’s tragic about his wardrobe,” Ursa said, grabbing Mako by the arm and dragging him behind her into the first store on the street. “He looks like a typical bad boy. That’s just how the Fire Nation dresses.”

The group quickly followed them.

“I don’t know either,” Iroh replied, holding the door open for the others.

“I’m right here,” Mako said, from his spot between the siblings.

Ursa spun him around. “So, what exactly is the issue, you guys are looking at?” she asked, turning to Korra and Bolin.

“Mako’s dressed the same way since he was like fourteen,” Bolin replied.

“Dude,” Mako shouted.

“And?” Ursa prompted.

“He, uh, looks, childish?” Bolin said, trailing off.

Ursa and Iroh traded another look.

“Right, Avatar Korra?” Ursa asked.

“You can just call me Korra,” Korra replied, “but, Mako wears fingerless gloves.”

“He’s a firebender,” Iroh replied.

“Yeah, but why is he even wearing gloves then,” Korra asked.

“Korra where are you going with this?” Asami finally asked, pulling her girlfriend aside.

“I’m taking the opportunity in front of me,” Korra whispered into Asami’s ear. “I’m going to matchmake Iroh and Mako, and what better way to do so, than to have Mako prance around half dressed in front of Iroh while Iroh complements his appearance?”

“Korra this is a bad idea,” Asami said.

“Then you don’t have to help me,” Korra said defensively.

Asami sighed, knowing there was no point in fighting Korra on this. “I’ll help but you have to listen when I tell you if you’ve gone too far, deal?” Asami suggested.  
“Deal,” Korra said, pulling her into as kiss.

“I agree with Korra,” Asami said returning. Mako threw his hands up in the air. “Not about the fingerless gloves but Mako, you’ve changed a lot over the past four years and your wardrobe needs to reflect the kind of person you are now. Someone well respected in his field with a good head on his shoulders and a stable life and income at his disposal, not someone who looks like they slept under a desk and forgot what day it is.”

“You mean I need to look like a functioning member of society rather than someone who grew up on the street,” Mako said defensively. Asami winced, knowing Mako was sensitive about that.

“Mako, we just want you to have nicer clothes,” Opal said, her quiet and sweet nature softening the blow of what she was saying.

“You know what,” Iroh said interjecting, “how about Ursa and I handle Mako and you guys go find your own clothing. Clearly you all and Mako don’t have the same opinion on how he should dress and it would be better for him, if his say was the only say.”

Mako grunted, but followed the two siblings further into the store.

“What’s got you so smiley,” Korra asked, looking at Bolin.

“Oh, what, me, smiley, no,” Bolin stuttered. “I’m just excited about Fire Nation clothes!”

Asami and Korra stared at him but his smile never wavered so they left him alone.

\----Mako----

Mako was feeling slightly put out as he followed Iroh and Ursa through the clothing store. He wasn’t sure why his friends suddenly felt the need to mock the way he dressed but it was slightly hurtful.

“So,” Ursa said, as they reached the heart of the men’s section. Iroh was staring rather hard at a deep red shirt with a high collar. “What’s your opinion on your clothing?”

“I don’t know. I guess my friends are kind of right,” Mako said, rubbing the back of his neck. Iroh turned to face him. “I haven’t really shopped for new clothing since back before I even met Korra and Asami. I guess I just never really bothered. I like my clothes. They are comfortable but maybe I do need new ones.”

“Okay,” Iroh said, “then we stick to things similar to what you already wear, just newer, and maybe branch out here and there. Sound good?”

Mako shrugged slightly.

Ursa hummed, pulling the shirt Iroh had been looking at from the rack. “Were you looking at this for him or you?” she asked.

“Him,” Iroh said, “While his street clothes don’t have high collars, the undershirt for his uniform does and I think it suits him. It might be something to keep in mind.”

Ursa looked Mako over. “This is going to be difficult, because Fire Nation styles and Republic City styles are not very compatible, but you know him better than I do, so I’ll take your word for it.” She said, handing the shirt to Mako and shooing him towards one of the larger dressing rooms.

“You might as well just stay in there,” Iroh said, with a laugh. “We’re going to bringing you a lot to try on.”

Mako blushed. “I feel like a dress up doll,” Mako muttered.

Iroh tilted their head. “If you’d rather not shop for clothes, we can go somewhere else,” they suggested.

“No, it’s fine,” Mako assured. He didn’t want Iroh to feel guilty for what Mako’s friends were doing.

“Alright,” Iroh said, “try that on while I go see what Ursa’s run off for.”

Mako nodded and sighed as they left the room. He looked down at the shirt. It was really nice, and the fabric was light and airy despite the shirt being form fitting.  
He took his coat and shirt off before pulling the other shirt on. He only had it half buttoned when Iroh knocked on the door again.

“You can come in,” Mako said. Iroh slipped through the door and stalled.

“Uh,” they said, dragging their eyes away from Mako. “Um, here.”

They handed Mako two more tops and a pair of pants.

Mako took the clothes from them and hung them up on the hook next to the mirror. He finished buttoning the shirt before turning to Iroh.

“Well?” Mako said, holding his arms out to the sides.

“Looks,” Iroh cleared their throat, “Looks great.”

Mako stared at Iroh for a moment. Mako wasn’t stupid, in fact he was one of Republic City’s greatest detectives. He knew he could be oblivious sometimes when it came to people, but between Iroh’s blush and the way their eyes kept glancing at Mako’s neck and then away, Mako was pretty confident that Iroh found him attractive.

Mako wasn’t sure what to do with that discovery, so he tucked it away for later. A lot of people thought Mako was attractive, and Mako was sometimes attracted back, but that didn’t really mean much in the long run. Iroh was probably just looking, though Mako wasn’t too sure.

Iroh ducked out of the changing room quickly after answering Mako’s question. Mako shook his head lightly before turning to look at himself in the mirror. He did look good, the collar reaching up his neck did something, though Mako wasn’t sure what. Mako had a rather long neck, much like his mother, and the high collar suited it.

He deliberately ignored his blush in the mirror. He wasn’t interested in Iroh, he was just attention starved after his last infatuation failed. He didn’t have time for another crush on royalty, the last time hadn’t worked out very well and had been depressingly one-sided. Mako pushed aside thoughts of Wu. He didn’t have time to run that disaster through his head.

He pulled the top off and set it aside for consideration. Then he pulled on the next top. This one was more a vest, and Mako wasn’t sure how he felt about it. It had the same high collar and the vest sleeves emphasized his biceps but it also hid none of his scar.

Mako bit his lip. He had been trying his best to hide the scar, knowing it looked gross, but he also really liked the way the vest looked. Ursa and Iroh were criminally good at picking clothes out.

“Knock, Knock, Detective, are you decent?” Ursa asked.

“Yeah,” Mako replied. She, much like Iroh, stalled in the doorway to look him over. Unlike Iroh, she didn’t blush in response.

“Looks nice,” she said, dropping even more clothes on the chair in the corner.

“I don’t know,” Mako said. “I’m not sure I like my scar showing like that.”

“Eh,” Ursa said, “my family doesn’t really pay attention to things like that, but I get why you might want to cover it.”

“Why?” Mako asked, before realizing. “Oh yeah, Lord Zuko.”

Ursa gave a tight smile. “Yeah. I personally think you look fine, but I can call Iroh in for a second opinion if you want?” she offered.

Mako was about to tell her no. Then he looked at his scar. Ursa said her family didn’t care but Mako kind of wanted Iroh’s opinion on it, anyway. He wasn’t sure why, and he didn’t want to look too closely into it.

“Yeah, go ahead and call them,” Mako said, tugging at the bottom of the vest.

Ursa leaned out of the dressing room, apparently prepared to shout across the store. Iroh must have been right outside the door though, because instead she just snatched them into the dressing room.

“What?” Iroh asked, their brows furrowing.

“Mako’s iffy about this one because of his scar,” Ursa said. Mako blinked at her. She was a very direct and to the point person. Mako kind of liked it, it remined him of Chief Beifong.

Iroh looked him over. Mako felt a blush building on his face as they did so.

“Personally, I don’t see an issue,” Iroh said, “but if it really makes you uncomfortable and you really like that top, we can find a way to work around it. Maybe an undershirt?”

“That defeats the purpose of the effect we have here,” Ursa pointed out.

Mako had no clue what the two siblings were talking about but they seemed to know what they were doing.

Iroh hummed and looked around the room randomly. Their eyes caught on something on the chair, though what in that mess caused inspiration, Mako wasn’t sure. They ducked back out of the dressing room, only to appear two minutes later with a pair of fingerless gloves and two armbands.

“Here, I know Korra thinks fingerless gloves are weird but in the Fire Nation, they are fairly popular, particularly with bikers,” Iroh said, handing him the gloves. “These are slightly longer than your others and go about halfway up the forearm. They should cover most of the damage, as the scaring is more sparce the higher up your arm you go. These arm bands should cover the really bad blotch right there.”

Iroh poked at Mako’s upper arm where a huge burn scar was.

Mako was skeptical but tired them anyway.

“Good job, Ro,” Ursa said. Iroh licked their lips, and looked away slightly.

Mako turned towards the mirror to see just what he looked like. The gloves looked nice and did cover most of his scar. They ended right before his elbow. The arm bands also looked good, further highlighting the muscle in Mako’s arms.

The thing that really got Mako though, is that between the gloves, the vest top and the armbands, Mako’s current outfit looked like a male version of something his mother always wore. There was something missing from it though.

“It needs something else,” Mako said, though he couldn’t voice just what he needed.

He saw Iroh and Ursa trade a glance in the mirror, before Iroh ducked back out of the dressing room. They returned with what Mako thought was a scarf but turned out to be a belt. They looped it around Mako’s natural waistline, letting it sit slightly off center on him. The place where the belt tied, resting on his left side.

Mako then remembered the shawl his mother wore wrapped around her waist and wondered how Iroh knew.

“Mainstream, but also fool proof,” Ursa said, looking at the belt.

“There’s a reason it’s mainstream,” Iroh said. “Nothing shapes an outfit like a tie at the waist, other than actual fitted clothing.”

Ursa stuck her tongue out at Iroh.

Mako tried on the rest of the clothes without much of a hitch and picked three outfits, including the first two he tried on. When he went to pay, Asami slipped past him and paid first.

“Sorry for picking on you so much,” Asami said. “We didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”

Mako shrugged and didn’t mention that her paying also made him a bit uncomfortable. She was trying, so Mako could live with it. Ursa set up a delivery of their bags to the vacation house before dragging the now Fire Nation styled group out to the beach.

“Oh,” Korra shouted when they reached the beach, “what’s that?”

Mako followed Korra’s finger towards a game that was being played on the beach.

“Kuai ball,” Ursa replied. “The point it to launch the ball and have it hit the ground on the opponent’s side to get a point. You can use your hands and feet to launch the ball. First team to 10 points wins. What to play? We’d need a team of four.”

“Asami,” Korra begged pulling on her girlfriend’s arm.

“Sure, I’ll play,” Asami said.

“Cool, you’re playing too, right Ursa? We only need one more,” Korra said.

“Mako can play,” Bolin suggested.

“Um,” Mako interjected, “what if Mako doesn’t want to play?”

“You can sit with me,” Iroh said. “I don’t like Kuai ball, my sister is too competitive and once nearly broke my brow bone, she hit me in the face so hard.”  
“I said I was sorry,” Ursa replied.

“It’s still a thing that happened,” Iroh shot back. Ursa stuck out her tongue but Korra interrupted before she could fire back herself.

“So, a no from Mako and Iroh, what about you Bolin?” Korra asked.

“I really think, Mako should play,” Bolin said. “I think he and Ursa might work well off of each other.”

Iroh laughed. “My sister doesn’t do team work, she does injure the other team so she wins by default,” Iroh said.

“Just come play Bolin,” Korra grunted. “Mako’s fine where he is.”

“But,” Bolin said. Opal cut him off. “I’ll play,” she said, before she and the rest of the women walked off.

Bolin huffed. “You said you’d help, Opal, that’s not helping,” Bolin said, before flopping on the sand.

“Hey,” Iroh said, “if you’re going to sit here a while, can you watch something for me? I don’t want it blowing away but I also want to go swimming.”

“Sure,” Bolin muttered. Iroh handed him the shear covering of their skirt before walking off towards the shore.

Mako watched them leave before turning back to his pouting brother. Mako decided to follow Iroh. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what Bolin was up to.

Mako caught up to Iroh, who was standing with the water up to their knees. Occasionally a wave would wash towards the shore and brush against the ends of their skirt.

Mako swallowed hard and looked away as particularly large wave washed the skirt up to mid-thigh. Mako shook himself.

Iroh turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow and Mako flushed at realizing he had been caught staring.

“Uh,” Mako said, “you have really nice legs, sorry. I shouldn’t have been looking.”

“Thanks?” Iroh said, tilting their head. “I think?”

“Sorry, really. It’s just, I’ve never seen you, or really anyone, dress like this, with so much, uh, skin showing, well aside from bathing suits but even then, they cover,” Mako made a motion over his midsection, “never mind, ignore me.”

Mako’s face felt like it was on fire. That was such a stupid comment to make and he wasn’t sure what had even compelled him to make it.

“Remind me not to take you to the nude beaches on the other side of the island if this much skin distracts you,” Iroh said with a laugh.

Mako’s face somehow got even hotter at the implication of seeing Iroh, no not just Iroh, people in general, without clothes on in public. He had to wonder how that could even be legal.  
They spent the rest of the day at the beach. Korra, Asami, Opal and Ursa instilled fear in the hearts of the Kuai ball players, to the point where no one wanted to play with them anymore. With Opal back with him, Bolin stopped pouting so much but he still seemed put out over something and would occasionally gesture Ursa out towards where Mako and Iroh were now combing the beach for seashells.

“Here,” Iroh said, handing Mako a handful of small black shelling.

“Um, thanks?” Mako said. The shells weren’t very pretty, unlike the other’s Iroh had picked up.

Iroh cupped Mako’s hands in theirs and shook them. The shells made a nice bell noise when they hit together.

“They are called chime shells,” Iroh said. “A lot of people use them for jewelry and wind chimes. There is also a musical instrument made with them but I forgot what it’s called.”

“I like the sound,” Mako said dumbly, looking at their hands, “it’s pretty.”

Mako felt his heart beat pick up in his ears the longer Iroh held his hands. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on between them but he had a sinking feeling in his chest that whatever it was, wasn’t going to end well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this doesn't come across as over sexualizing Iroh. Mako's just realized they are attractive after realizing he had their attention, before then they had been placed in a position of "unattainable so don't even try". Korra is just a useless bisexual who's walking behind two really hot people in vey little clothing.


	3. Day 3: Operation Makroh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra puts a plan in motion to get Iroh and Mako talking, unfortunately the plan goes sideways unexpectedly.  
> Bolin hatches a similar plan on the spot that ends with Mako and Ursa soaking wet.  
> Iroh gets to hold Mako's hand.

\----Korra----

Korra had an idea, or well sort of an idea. It was more of a vague outline that she was hoping her girlfriend could flesh out. Instead Asami seemed more intent on poking holes in it.

“I don’t think it’s going to work like that,” Asami said. They were sitting on the steps that lead down to the private beach, their room no longer a safe place to plan with Opal around. Korra had debated letting Opal in on their plans but she and Bolin were being weird about something, and Korra didn’t have time to focus on another issue.

“No, it’ll work!” Korra insisted. “It’ll be a double date! They wont even notice until too late. We get them in a date like situation and wander off for alone time. Then they will realize that now they are alone and on a date type of thing and talk about their feelings.”

“You’re forgetting something, Korra,” Asami said, shaking her head.

“What?” Korra asked, squinting at her girlfriend.

“Mako doesn’t talk about his feelings,” Asami deadpanned.

Asami wasn’t wrong there. At least not fully. Mako talked about his feelings but only once you broke down his walls. While Iroh and Mako apparently knew each other well, Korra wasn’t sure if Iroh had managed to do that or not. If they hadn’t, Asami would be right but, she was forgetting something herself.

Mako easily reciprocated when someone opens up to him. If Iroh says something, Mako will respond.

“But Iroh will!” Korra explained. “Then Mako will be forced to respond, hopefully in the positive. Then they can get together and Mako and Iroh can be happy.”

“Korra, we’ve both dated Mako before, how often has backing him into a corner worked out for you, because it never did for me. He just goes on the defensive and then its an uphill battle to get him to open back up,” Asami argued.

“I’ve never seen that happen,” Korra said, her brow wrinkling. “Mako’s usually agreeable for the most part.”

“No,” Asami stated. She was looking at Korra like she has a few screws loose. “Mako goes on the defensive then when he realizes it’s turning into an argument, he defuses the situation by agreeing with whoever he’s arguing with. Depending on how much he actually cares about the issue, he will either ignore the situation entirely or he will do what he wanted anyway.”

Korra pouted as she realized Asami was right. Mako always had to make everything so difficult.

“Look, Korra,” Asami said, grabbing her hand. “All I’m saying is be careful. The last thing we want to do is make Mako feel like he’s obligated to do something or that he needs to fight what’s happening between him and Iroh. Making Mako feel off balance won’t help Iroh and could in fact, completely ruin their relationship, even the one they already have built up, whatever it is.”

“Well then what do we do?” Korra asked. She felt slightly defeated at this point. There was a reason she and Mako didn’t work out and Korra realized it was the exact reason her matchmaking idea was already failing before it started. 

Mako, much like herself if Korra was being honest, was too hot headed to think things through rationally. Where Korra’s rash decision making was directed towards taking action, Mako’s was directed at his feelings. It led to a lot of miscommunication and hurt feelings between the two of them and the last thing she wanted was for the same thing to happen between him and Iroh.

“We could stay with them to run interference if anything goes sideways,” Asami suggested. “I think between the two of us we can handle any Mako freak-outs that may occur.” 

Korra smiled at her genius girlfriend. “I guess so,” she said, flipping her hand over to link her fingers with Asami’s. “Let’s go find Iroh and see if they have any ideas of where to go or something fun to do.”

They searched the entire house and the grounds for the General but couldn’t find them, until Korra nearly ran into a foot hanging down from the roof.

She followed the leg upwards to find Iroh, laid back on the roof reading a book. They were wearing the swim trunks Korra had seen around Ember Island and their hair was wet for some reason.

Korra tapped their ankle. “Hey,” she called up to get their attention.

Iroh leaned up to look down at her.

“Is there a reason you and your sister keep ending up on the roof?” Korra asked.

Iroh shrugged in response. “Granddad taught us that when it comes to sneaking around, most people don’t look up. Ursa and I spent a lot of time on roofs and clinging to ceilings as kids,” Iroh responded.

“Huh, weird,” Korra said. “Anyway, I was looking for you because I wanted to know if there was anything wild out there to do on the island?”

Korra knew Mako could be a bit of an adrenaline junky, though he would never admit it, and something exciting might encourage him to loosen up.

Iroh tilted their head before sliding off the roof. “Well, there are the diving cliffs,” Iroh replied. “They are these really talk cliffs about a half mile from here that you can jump off of without too much worry. The water is deep so you won’t hit any rocks. The only danger is the usual danger when in the ocean. It’s kind of a huge cultural thing on the island to dive off those cliffs. It’s a major hangout spot.”

“That sounds perfect,” Korra said, “Can you take us there?”

“Sure,” Iroh said, tucking their book under their arm and sliding down off the roof.

“We should invite Mako too,” Korra said, as they walked past the room Mako and Bolin were in. Iroh needed to stash their book, which gave Korra the perfect opportunity to grab Mako. “He likes things like this.”

“Does he?” Iroh asked, trying to sound casual.

“Sure, Mako loves taking walks and he secretly loves to do dangerous things. It’s why he loves his satocycle so much, he can go really fast and maneuver really quickly,” Korra explained. She could see Iroh mentally taking notes.

Iroh hummed before ducking into the room they shared with their sister, as Asami knocked on the door.

Mako answered, looking slightly bleary-eyed. He was probably one of the few firebenders in existence who slept in past sunrise.

“Hey, we are going to go on a hike to some cliffs, do you want to come with?” Korra asked.

“Uh, I just woke up,” Mako said, trying to close the door.

Asami held it open.

“Perfect time for a hike then,” Korra said, pushing her way into the room. Bolin was still sound asleep with Pabu. Korra grabbed Mako’s swimsuit and handed it to him.

Mako sighed, proving Asami’s point about backing him in a corner. Korra counted herself lucky Mako chose to cave this time, rather than fight.

With Mako dressed and carrying a banana on their trip for breakfast, the four set off towards the cliffs.

Korra pulled Asami back so they were walking behind where Mako and Iroh were. This way they could watch what the two men did.

So far, Mako was eating his banana and Iroh was staring vaguely off into space. That wouldn’t do.

“So, you said this place is a hang out spot?” Korra asked, trying to ignite a conversation. “Do you go up here often?”

“Yeah,” Iroh said, “my sister and I would meet friends and stuff up here when we were younger.”

“And stuff?” Korra prompted.

“Dates and the like,” Iroh replied.

“So, it’s a date hang out?” Asami asked, skeptically.

“No, an any kind of hang out,” Iroh replied. They seemed bored of the conversation, which Korra thought was slightly fair as she was bored too and really wished Mako would speak up.

“My Granddad came with us last time we were up here,” Iroh said, seeming to understand that Korra wanted the silence filled. “We spent the whole time chasing him around and making sure he didn’t injure himself. He was ultimately fine and even showed Ursa and I up.”

Iroh laughed to themself. “Granddad doesn’t know when to quit, is his problem,” They explained.

“Yeah, I noticed, even from the few interactions I’ve had with him,” Korra said. She was surprised to find out the old man had cliff dived even at his age, surely that was way too dangerous. 

She wondered what other wild things the man still did. Korra had grown up on stories of Aang’s Team Avatar from Katara, and knew as a young man Lord Zuko had been rather, off kilter to say the least, even when he wasn’t chasing the Avatar.

“So, are we just hiking or is there something to do at this hang out?” Mako asked, finally done eating. He threw his peel on the ground off to the side of the path.

“Cliff diving,” Iroh said.

“Like into a lake or something?” Mako asked.

Iroh didn’t answer. Instead they walked a bit further before gesturing out to their side.

Korra could see the ocean stretching out over the horizon. From up here she could see several of the other islands in the island chain. It was a fairly impressive view.  
“Oh,” Mako said, quietly.

Korra turned her head to look at him. He looked like he was about to run for it. Korra wasn’t sure what set him off, as nothing had even happened.

“So, you dive from the cliffs into the ocean?” Mako asked.

“Yep, Korra figured you’d want to come. She said you like things like this?” Iroh said, looking Mako over nervously. Korra was starting to worry now, as Iroh also seemed slightly upset.

“Uh, not really,” Mako said, turning away from the cliffs.

“What?” Korra asked, in confusion. “You love doing crazy things like this! Is it the height? I’m pretty sure we’ve been places higher.”

“I just don’t want to do it,” Mako said. “Looks boring.” 

“Oh,” Iroh said, sounding slightly disappointed, “well, you don’t have to dive if you don’t want to. A lot of people just hang out up here for the view.”

Korra winced as Iroh’s face pulled into a frown. They were really upset now. Korra didn’t image having your crush call a significant part of your childhood boring would feel great.

“I think it looks like fun,” Asami said, trying to smooth over hurt feelings. “At least give it a try?”

“Why?” Mako asked, his voice coming out harsh. He was officially on the defensive now. Korra couldn’t believe she forgot he reacted like this. It was coming back to her with clarity, the number of times she backed Mako into a corner and he got mad.

“It never hurts to try,” Asami pointed out.

“It’s a cliff,” Mako said. “You could hit the water wrong and injure yourself or you could hit your head on one of the rocks! I think in this case it could hurt to try. I don’t want to. If you think it’s fun then go ahead but this isn’t my idea of fun. It’s my idea of stupid.”

Mako marched off, apparently done humoring them with conversation.

“Pig-chicken!” Korra called after him, knowing that sometimes worked to get him to do things. This time all it got was a rude gesture from Mako as he kept walking.

“What is his issue!” Korra yelled, hopefully loud enough for Mako to hear.

“Korra,” Asami said, softly. Korra turned to her girlfriend to see her attention on Iroh.

Iroh had their arms wrapped tightly around themself and was looking out over the horizon. Now, Korra was really mad at Mako as Iroh looked close to crying.

“Whatever,” Korra said, her voice softening. “We can have fun without him.”

Iroh smiled weakly.

“Do you still want to cliff dive?” Iroh asked. By their tone of voice Korra could tell they had lost all interest in the activity at Mako’s dismissal.

Korra looked over the cliff. Truthfully it looked fun but she also only wanted to come to get Mako and Iroh together.

“You know what,” Korra said. “I’d rather just hang out up here like you offered Mako. I don’t really feel like climbing all the way back up here.”

Iroh shrugged and dragged the two women over to a grouping of rocks. Iroh plopped down in one that looked like a chair.

“I love these rocks,” Iroh said. It was an odd statement, another attempt to fill to silence. “My sister and I would always fight over this one because it was perfect for sitting in.”

They hung out at the top of the cliffs for about an hour before they left. Their hearts weren’t in the trip anymore.

When they reached the beach house, Korra grabbed Iroh’s arm before they could walk off.

“Hey,” Korra said lightly. “I’m sorry about what happened with Mako. I know you like him a lot and if I thought he would have reacted the way he did, I wouldn’t have gone along with this.”

Iroh closed their eyes. “You picked up on that?” They asked. “When?”

Korra could see a blush spreading up their neck and realized they were uncomfortable. Still she gave an honest answer. 

“Since a like an hour after we got off the phone with you,” she replied.

Iroh nodded. “And Mako?” Iroh asked.

“I don’t think he even knows you like him,” Korra admitted, “but clearly Mako has some hidden depths Asami and I don’t know about, so who actually knows at this point.”

“Right,” Iroh said. They nodded again before walking off. “Right,” they repeated to themself as they left.

“That couldn’t have possibly have gone worse,” Korra said, groaning into Asami’s shoulder when her girlfriend hugged her.

“Sadly enough, it probably could have gone worse,” Asami said, “but luckily for us it didn’t.”

“Back to the drawing board, I guess,” Korra said, pulling back from the hug.

“Maybe we should try and figure out Mako’s feelings in all of this first,” Asami suggested. “Maybe set something up so that we can gauge how Mako reacts to Iroh?”

“So, what, orchestrate an interaction where we can watch them when it’s just the two of them?” Korra asked.

Asami shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. We can’t really set them up, if we don’t know if Mako even actually likes them back.”

Korra sighed. “Matchmaking is harder than I thought it would be,” she said, dragging Asami towards their room. Luckily Opal wasn’t there, so they had the time and space to plan.

\----Ursa----

Ursa was contemplating eating one of the pastries sitting on the counter when someone joined her.

“Where’s Mako?” Bolin asked, wandering into the kitchen with Opal.

“He, Korra, Asmai and Iroh went hiking up to the diving cliffs,” Ursa said, absentmindedly as she decided she wanted the cherry pastry.

She pulled it off the plate and looked up at her unexpected guests. Bolin looked upset, though Ursa couldn’t figure out why. Maybe he wanted the cherry pastry?

“Diving cliffs?” Opal asked, sitting down next to her.

“Yeah, these huge cliffs people go diving off of into the ocean,” Ursa explained. “Iroh and I used to go diving all the time as kids with our dad.”

“Why didn’t you go with them, then?” Bolin asked.

“First off, I wasn’t invited and secondly, Korra was being weird this morning last I saw her, and I tend to avoid social situations where people’s thoughts are hard to understand. She confused me a lot yesterday and I didn’t really want to repeat that lost feeling,” Ursa said, taking a bite from her pastry.

“We didn’t make you uncomfortable yesterday, did we?” Opal asked. She sounded concerned and of the Avatar’s friends she was definitely Ursa’s favorite.

“A bit,” Ursa said, “the only ones I felt comfortable around yesterday were Iroh and Mako. The rest of you were being, passive aggressive about random things and I didn’t know what to do with it. Playing Kuai Ball was fun but the rest of the day was just weird and uncomfortable. So, yes, I’m avoiding Korra, and truthfully, you two as well.”

“I’m sorry,” Opal said, “I didn’t mean to and I’m sure Korra and Asmai didn’t mean to either.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too,” Bolin said, “we didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”

“You didn’t make me feel bad, you just made Mako feel bad. I was just uncomfortable,” Ursa said, getting up to leave. She was starting to feel uncomfortable again, as she wasn’t sure why Bolin and Opal felt the need to follow her out of the kitchen.

“So,” Bolin said, stretching out the word, “the cliff diving thing, you said it was into the ocean and Mako went with them?”

Ursa stared at him for a moment. “Yes, why?” She asked.

“Nothing, or well something, Mako and I can’t swim very well. It’s enough for a trip to the pool but not diving into the ocean, Mako’s not going to want to participate,” Bolin explained.

“Oh,” Ursa said, “Iroh will be disappointed then, they were excited to show Mako that particular island tradition. Oh, well, they’ll understand when Mako explains. At least the hike has a good view, so Mako will have something to look at while the others dive.”

“Yeah, great,” Bolin muttered, before loudly asking, “Are you sure you don’t want to go up to those cliffs? It sounds fun.”

Ursa’s forehead crinkled in confusion. “You just said you can’t swim,” she pointed out.

“Right,” Bolin said, “but you can.”

“I’m really not following,” Ursa replied, looking to Opal for help. The airbender seemed just as lost as she was.

They were interrupted by one of the doors slamming open behind them.

“Sorry,” Mako said, having made everyone jump.

“Why aren’t you up at the cliffs?” Ursa asked.

“Ah, didn’t look like fun,” Mako replied.

Ursa tilted her head. That was a lie. “Is it because you can’t swim well? You could have stayed. We take friends up there to just hang out all the time,” Ursa explained.

“Oh,” Mako said, rubbing the back of his head. “I didn’t want to admit I couldn’t swim well enough, so I just told them I wasn’t interested and left.”

Ursa winced slightly. “Iroh’s going to be upset,” she said, “they were excited to show you. It’s a very big part of island culture to jump from those cliffs as kids, teens, adults, any age really. Even when you don’t jump, you still stick around. They’re going to think you just didn’t want to be around them.”

“Oh,” Mako said, again, “I feel like crap now.”

“Don’t,” Ursa replied, touching his shoulder lightly, “Just explain when they get back. Iroh’s a chill person, most things roll off their back. It’s not a huge problem.”

“Well,” Bolin said, suddenly in-between Ursa and Mako, “since you’re here now, how about the four of us go do something fun.”

Ursa really didn’t want to go anywhere with them, but she was raised with manners and as a Princess and the only host in the house, was duty bound to go with them.  
“Sure,” she said, hoping her face conveyed enough discomfort to be left alone.

Mako seemed to pick up on it, as did Opal but Bolin took her at her word, which was why she ended up back in the city center with the three members of Team Avatar.

“So,” Bolin said, “other than the beaches and the shop what else is there to do here?”

“Nothing,” Ursa said, gesturing around her at the small city. “There is absolutely nothing to do here other than go to the beach, hike, cliff dive, go to the theater, or shop. You can ride a bike instead of walking but that’s it. It’s a tiny island, for vacationers and retirees, there’s nothing exciting to do here but relax.”

Ursa moved towards the wishing fountain at the center of the city square. “Well,” she said, tossing in a coin, “there’s nothing exciting to do until the night life wakes up, then you’re likely to get arrested for something crazy.”

Ursa laughed before directing the group towards the bank. For a small island it had a huge bank, due to the types of people who stayed here.

“Once, Iroh got so drunk at a party, they climbed up on top of the bank because they needed better light to read the map someone had given them, to another, secret, party,” Ursa said. “The island officers got them down and were going to take us home, but they didn’t believe us when we told them where we live, so they held us. We couldn’t give them a number to call because Granddad said no phones on the island so they couldn’t figure out where we supposedly actually lived.”

“Anyway,” Ursa continued, directing them further down the street, “our mom wakes up and can’t find us and knew we were out partying, so she panics and goes to file a missing person report. She luckily wasn’t panicked enough to send the palace guards or Kyoshi Warriors after us. I guess she figured we might have just fallen asleep at some randos house. She gets there and finds us sitting in a jail cell with this guy who was trying to convince Iroh and I to call their drug dealer when we got out.”

“What?” Mako said with a laugh. Bolin and Opal also looked good humored.

“Yeah, that wasn’t even the worst part,” Ursa said, stopping the group. “The secret party we were invited to? It was a freaking orgy! We found out the next night when the girl who gave us the map, got upset we didn’t join them!”

“Oh no,” Opal said, covering her mouth as she giggled.

“So, this place,” Ursa said pointing behind her, at a run-down mansion, “is really creepy at night and Iroh and I were really into spirits and stuff when we were little, and we were convinced a malicious one lived here, so we snuck out of the house to come here at night to try to find it.”

“Iroh nearly peed themself when a huge banging noise shook the whole house. We made a run for it only to discover the culprit was an armadillo-cat,” Ursa said with a laugh.

“Did you ever catch a spirit?” Mako asked, good humored.

“No but Iroh thinks they saw Lu Ten once in his room, but I think they were just trying to scare me,” Ursa insisted. She didn’t like to think about how cold the room had been that night and had extinguish the candles the second Iroh said something about it.

“I think they might have been right,” Opal said.

“Yeah,” Bolin agreed, “His room was scary the night before. It’s why Opal and I switched rooms.”

Ursa rolled her eyes. “Lu Ten died like eighty something years ago,” she said. “He wouldn’t be holding on that long for no reason.”

“Maybe he has one?” Opal suggested.

“Don’t know what it would be,” Ursa reasoned. “His father’s dead, the only connection he still has to our family are Granddad and Aunt Azula.”

“Don’t human souls get reborn anyway?” Mako asked.

“I think so, that’s what my Granddad says,” Ursa said. She directed them on, apparently the group was content to just wander around and let Ursa tell stories, which was fine by her as there was nothing else to do. “Then again, apparently Great-granduncle Iroh hung around as a spirit and supposedly The Painted Lady, Yue, Oma and Shu were also all spirits who used to be human. So that’s apparently a possibility.”

“Oh!” Ursa said running over to a tree and pointing at it. “This is the tree Iroh pushed me out of and I broke my collarbone on. They got in so much trouble for that.”

“So, wait,” Mako said, holding up his hands as if to pause the conversation. “Your parents got mad that Iroh pushed you out of a tree and broke your collarbone but not that you burned Iroh with a firework and nearly burned off their privates?”

Ursa laughed. “They told you about that?” She asked, surprised. Iroh usually kept that story to themself. “Mom was more concerned by the property damage we were causing as Iroh ultimately proved to be okay.”

“That’s still crazy,” Opal replied.

Ursa shrugged before dragging them off towards the kissing tree.

“You guys can let me know if I’m oversharing at any point,” Ursa said, turning to face the others.

“No,” Bolin said, quickly, “keep talking you’re a very entertaining story teller, right Mako?”

“Um, yeah?” Mako said, shooting an odd look at his brother.

“Alright,” Ursa said slowly. “Anyway, this is the kissing tree. If you grew up on Ember Island, this was were you had your first kiss. Iroh kissed a guy named Sami under this tree. Their initials are carved right here.”

Ursa pointed to where “I+SM” were carved into the tree.

“I forget what his last name was but that’s them,” Ursa said. “My first kiss was horrible because I was kind of peer-pressured into it but it was with a guy named, funnily enough, Mako but it was short for Makoto. Is that what your name is short for or is Mako your full name?”

“Mako’s my full name,” Mako replied.

“So, you kiss people under this tree?” Bolin asked.

“Pretty much,” Ursa said, shrugging her shoulders. She to this day, wasn’t sure why people chose this specific tree to kiss under but they did.

“Huh, it’s kind of funny that you kissed one Mako under this tree and now you’re standing under it again with another Mako,” Bolin said.

“I guess,” Ursa replied. She wasn’t sure what Bolin was getting at, but she knew from his tone he was trying to lead her somewhere.

Mako was glaring at him. Opal coughed lightly before pulling Bolin into a kiss.

“Quit while you’re ahead,” she whispered when she pulled away.

Ursa decided to ignore whatever just happened, as she usually did with social interaction that confused her. She led them back to the city center, having nothing else of real interest to show them in the immediate area.

Not only that but Mako now seemed mad about something and looked two seconds from storming off.

She saw her granddad from a distance standing at the city center fountain with Aunt Ty Lee. Aunt Azula was no where in sight but that didn’t mean she wasn’t around as well.

Ursa dragged the group over, hoping she could pawn her companions off on them and get back to lazing around the house.

“Whatcha doing?” Ursa said, warping her arms around her granddad’s neck.

He placed his hand over hers and smiled. “We are clothes shopping for Azula. Ty Lee wants to surprise her with something nice for her birthday next month but she wanted my assistance in picking it out. I’m still not entirely sure why,” he said, looking over at an innocently smiling Aunt Ty Lee.

“Oh?” Ursa said, before taking a page out of Bolin’s book and volunteering others to do something. “Then it’s good we found you! Bolin and Opal know a lot about dressing people! They helped Mako realize he needed a new wardrobe just yesterday. They can help you!”

“I’m not clothes shopping, again,” Mako said, crossing his arms.

“Oh, no,” Opal started to say before Bolin cut her off.

“We can definitely help you!” Bolin said, before nudging his brother. Mako stumbled forward and had to catch himself on Ursa. Ursa wasn’t exactly stable herself and the two fell backwards into the fountain behind her.

Ursa growled as she felt the water soaking into her clothes and flipped her wet hair out of her face.

“Ah, darling, are you okay?” her granddad asked.

“Just fine,” Ursa lied, as Mako scrambled off of her and out of the fountain. 

Mako was lucky and had been walking around in his odd swimsuit that looked like a full-on outfit. Ursa on the other hand, hadn’t been wearing a swimsuit, as she hadn’t been planning to leave the house so now the sundress she was wearing was dripping and heavily hanging on her body.

Luckily for her, the fabric was rather thick, even if it was airy, and didn’t become see-through upon getting wet. That, she would have had to murder Bolin over.  
Being a waterbender made it an easy fix, but she still wasn’t happy she needed to fix it in the first place. Ursa wasn’t gentle as she slammed the water back into the fountain.

“I’m so sorry,” Bolin said. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

Ursa held up her hand to stop him. “I’m going home. Do not follow me,” she said, before turning away.

The last thing she heard as she walked away was her Aunt Ty Lee saying, “Do you remember when you and Mai fell in a fountain together?” and Bolin responding “Oh really, and then you ended up together, how cute, right Mako? Uh, Mako?”

“Hey,” Mako said, from way closer to her than she thought he would be. “I’m sorry about my brother. I don’t know what my friends’ deal is. It’s like this island has made them all go crazy.”

“It’s fine,” Ursa said. “Just don’t knock me in to anymore fountains. Honestly, you and Opal aren’t that bad, even Asami is okay enough but your brother is driving me insane and I have no clue why he keeps trying so hard to drag me into things.”

“Well, if I figure it out,” Mako said, “I’ll let you know.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Mako paused outside the house to stare at something. Ursa followed his gaze to see Iroh laying back in the sand of their private beach.

“I’ll see you later. I have an apology to make,” Mako said, changing course towards Iroh.

Ursa cocked her head to the side as she watched Mako sit next to Iroh. Maybe Mako could take her sibling’s mind off of whoever their Republic City crush was.

\----Iroh----  
Iroh was sitting on the beach outside of their vacation home, drawing in the sand with a stick they had found.

They had seen Mako and Ursa walking around the main city of the island together when they ventured back out, and had come back home immediately. It was bad enough that earlier Iroh had been rejected, again, but now the person they were crushing on, would rather spend time with their sister.

Iroh had thought, at the end of yesterday, that maybe there was a chance that Mako might like them back. He had been staring slightly mesmerized at Iroh’s legs and had blushed a cute shade of red when Iroh had grabbed his hands. 

Korra’s own confusion on the matter didn’t help them sort out Mako’s behavior.

Iroh wanted to go back to those few hours where they had all of Mako’s attention to themself.

They weren’t even entirely sure what they had done wrong that morning. Korra had told them that Mako liked doing things like going on walks and cliff diving but when they finally got where they were going, Mako shut them down and Iroh had no clue why.

Even Korra and Asami had seemed confused by Mako’s reaction to the cliff.

It had hurt, when Mako called cliff diving stupid. Iroh had grown up doing it, even their granddad had done it as a kid. When Korra had told them Mako liked adrenaline inducing things, Iroh had been excited to share that part of their life with the man.

Iroh dropped their stick and laid back in the sand. The sun was still shining down from the sky and felt wonderful soaking into their skin.

They stayed like that for a while before someone joined them. Iroh hoped it wasn’t Korra, they were slightly tired of her advice for today. Despite being Mako’s ex-girlfriends, she and Asami didn’t really seem to know him that well.

“Nice fish drawing,” Mako said, causing Iroh to jolt upright.

“Ah,” Iroh said, looking down at their sand doodle, “thanks? I thought you were with Ursa in the city?”

“I was,” Mako said with a shrug. “Then Bolin pushed us in a fountain. We were getting bored anyway, there isn’t much to do here.”

“Yeah,” Iroh agreed. “It’s more of a party island. If drinking until you black out or go home with someone questionable isn’t your thing, Ember Island can get boring quickly. It’s a nice kind of boring though. The kind old people get when they retire, all the time in the world to just exist without worry.”

“I suppose,” Mako said. “If it’s always this quiet on the island, I think I would retire out here.”

“It’s where Granddad says he plans to retire, but I don’t think he actually plans to retire,” Iroh said. “Apparently the reason Aunt Azula and Ty Lee even came this year was so they could go house hunting.”

“Oh yeah?” Mako said, not really seeming that interested.

Iroh couldn’t blame him, they were just trying to keep the conversation going. “Yeah,” Iroh answered, “they are planning on moving out here. Hopefully to the other side of the island.”

“You mean the side with the nude beaches?” Mako asked.

Iroh stared at him in horror. “Why would you say that?” Iroh asked.

“I don’t know,” Mako said, burying his face in his hands. “Ignore me.”

Iroh laughed and shook their head. The two fell into a comfortable silence and Iroh laid back on the beach again. They felt Mako’s eyes on them but he didn’t say anything, so Iroh left it be.

“So, about those nude beaches,” Mako said, before trailing off.

“What about them,” Iroh prompted.

“Well, it’s just, I’m kind of interested in going to one,” Mako said, “just to see what it looks like.”

“Pervert,” Iroh joked causing Mako to blush. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding! Why do you want to see what they look like?”

“I don’t know,” Mako replied. “They don’t have them anywhere else and I guess I’m just curious. Like, is it a sex thing or what? Why would you even want to go to a beach without clothes on? Doesn’t sand like, get places?”

Iroh started laughing about the time Mako accused nude beaches of being a sex thing. Their ribs hurt with each breath they took, they were laughing so hard.

“It’s not,” Iroh said, though their laughter, “it’s not a sex thing. Trust me, it’s not a sex thing. I mean, sometimes it can become a sex thing if you like hit it off with someone, but that can happen on any type of beach. No one goes to a nude beach with sex on the brain, or well I suppose a lot of tourists do but the people who live in the Fire Nation? Half the time we don’t even wear clothes in normal situations. It’s hot, people don’t want to wear clothes. People want all over tans. Some people just don’t like swimsuits. Some just want to not wear clothing. That’s all there is to it.”

“Huh,” Mako said, “so if I still wanted to like, go see one, would you go with me?”

“Uh,” Iroh responded, their brain shutting down slightly. Going to a nude beach wasn’t usually about sexy times for Iroh, but going to a nude beach with Mako? Iroh might just spontaneously combust.

“You don’t have to, it’s cool, I just didn’t want to walk over there alone and well, I’m not going to ask your sister to go with me,” Mako said, rubbing the back of his head. “In fact, forget I asked.”

“Wait,” Iroh said, grabbing at Mako’s arm. “I can take you if you really want but I’m going to need to know if you want to walk around without clothes too. There are full nudist beaches that require you to not wear clothes and clothing optional beaches that you can do either or at.”

“Maybe clothing optional,” Mako said, “not sure if I’m comfortable not wearing something.”

Yeah, Iroh had noticed that. Mako and Bolin both stuck out like sore thumbs here on Ember Island with their full body swimsuits, even Korra and Asami’s one pieces looked weird to the bikini and swim trunk clad Fire Nation citizens. Granted, they would probably look normal on the more tourist bound beaches. The ones they had been spending time on were residential beaches.

“Alright,” Iroh said, running the beaches on the far side of the island through their head. “you should probably wear trunks instead of the body suit though. If your comfortable that is. Not showing your junk on a clothing optional beach is one thing, dressing like you have something to hide, is a completely different thing. It will make you look suspicious and make others uncomfortable to have you around them.”

“Alright,” Mako said, slowly. He followed Iroh into Ursa’s room where Iroh went digging through their things for a spare swimsuit bottom. They giggled to themself as they pulled out a pair of bikini bottoms, knowing Mako would certainly not like to wear those.

“Here,” Iroh said, throwing a pair of trunks at Mako.

Mako caught them and Iroh left him alone to slip them on. Iroh quickly ducked into their own room, currently housing Bolin and Mako, something about Lu Ten’s room had freaked Bolin and Opal out. 

Iroh wasn’t surprised, Ursa and them used to do spirit rituals in there as kids when their parents and grandparents had gone out for the night. Iroh swore up and down they had seen Lu Ten appear in the corner of the room, but Ursa called them a liar and blew out the candles before looking over. She had apparently freaked herself out.

Iroh looked at their bed which was messy and unmade, never the way Iroh left it themself. A cot had been brought into the room and Pabu was currently napping on it. Iroh assumed the cot was for Bolin which mean Mako was the one sleeping in their bed.

A jolt went through Iroh’s stomach at that idea. Now if only Iroh was also sleeping in their bed, then the situation would be perfect. 

They opened their bedside table and pulled out their sunglasses. They had forgot to pack a pair and knew they left some in here but kept forgetting to get them.  
With their sunglasses in hand Iroh walked back out of their room to find Mako waiting in the hallway.

Iroh miscalculated. They should have just left Mako be with their full body swimsuit regardless of how it made beach goers feel. Now they were stood across from a shirtless Mako and struggling really hard not to do something embarrassing.

“Ready?” Mako asked nervously. He had his arms crossed over his chest.

Iroh shook themself at the realization of Mako’s discomfort. “Hey, you can change back if you want, your comfort is more important than strangers’,” Iroh said.

“It’s fine,” Mako said, forcibly uncrossing his arms. Iroh watched him for a moment before deciding to leave it alone.

“Okay then, yeah, we can go,” Iroh said.

The walk across the island wasn’t a long one, the island being rather small all things considered. It was probably only two miles wide and seven miles long. The shore line barely reached ten miles all the way around. Truthfully, when Iroh said the beaches where on the other side of the island, it was a bit of an exaggeration.

If you didn’t mind cutting through private beaches and a small wooded area, the first nude beach was only half a mile away. They would have to go a little further, past Shark Tooth Beach, a small beach tucked between more populated ones where a ridiculous amount of shark teeth wash up, to reach one that was clothing optional.

Iroh realized they weren’t wearing shoes when they reached the wooded area but it wasn’t the first time, they walked this way without them.

“Huh,” Mako said, “I was going to offer you my shoes. I didn’t think a prince would know how to walk over such a rough surface.”

Iroh shot a glare over their shoulder. “I grew up on this island barefoot and shirtless,” Iroh explained. “My family stayed here a lot when I was a kid, like nearly year-round.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Mako said. “I lost my shoes when I was nine, I think and didn’t get another pair until a nice lady handed me some knowing the winter was coming up. I learned how to walk on rough terrain after that. I still have calluses on my feet from it.”

“Calluses are good,” Iroh said, picking up a prickly ball and tossing it out of their path. “It means when a sticker ties to stab your foot, it has a tougher time.”

“Yeah, hey, Iroh, I want to apologize for earlier,” Mako said, scratching the back of his head. “I just didn’t want to admit that I can’t swim that well. I talked to your sister and realized you were trying to share a cultural thing and I just blew you off with no reason. I can swim well enough to venture into a pool but not well enough to risk going too far into the ocean or diving off a cliff.”

“Oh,” Iroh said, feeling a lot better about being brushed off this morning. “I understand. It’s fine. I didn’t know.”

They had walked straight past the first beach’s parking lot and were now on the sidewalk heading toward the other. Iroh jumped the rope for Shark Tooth Beach and combed through the shells. They ignored the pain in their feet from walking over such a rough surface as they searched for shark teeth. They found three whole ones and five broken ones.

They dropped the broken ones and handed the others to Mako when they met up at the end of the beach.

“Here,” Iroh said, “you can have these.”

“Thanks,” Mako said, tucking them in the pocket of his borrowed swim trunks. “It there a particular reason you keep handing me seashells and stuff.”

“No,” Iroh answered quickly. They weren’t about to explain the Ember Island shell culture and how Iroh was using them to flirt with him.

They finally reached the nude beach and Mako immediately broke the no staring rule.

Iroh grabbed his arm and turned him to face them. “Okay, rules for nude beaches, do not stare at people, do not take picture even of the beach, and lastly do not say anything to anyone about their body,” Iroh said, turning Mako back towards the water.

“Okay,” Mako said, looking at the ground, “got it.”

Iroh shook their head. This was slightly less awkward than they thought it would be but Mako was still being weird about it. Iroh laid down a blanket for them, in the shade of a rock formation. Mako sat next to them, still breaking the staring rule.

“Mako,” Iroh said, “stop staring.”

“Right,” Mako said looking at his feet. “So, what do you do at nude beaches?”

“The same things you do at regular beaches,” Iroh replied.

“Oh,” Mako said. “So, can we go walk along the water like we did yesterday?”

“Sure,” Iroh said, standing. Mako followed their lead as they made their way to the shore.

Mako was quiet, and slightly tense, as they walked along the shore, but he finally seemed to be keeping his eyes to himself, only taking an occasional sweep across the beach to take everything in. Mako had finally relaxed after several minutes of calmly walking.

Well, Mako kept his eyes mostly to himself. Iroh was slightly surprised to find Mako’s attention mostly on them. They had been getting hot and cold responses from Mako all day and weren’t entirely sure what Mako’s deal was anymore. If asked yesterday Iroh thought they had a second shot at a relationship, but if asked today, Iroh couldn’t tell you.

Right now, though Iroh knew one thing, Mako was at least physically attracted to them. He was peaking over way too often to not be, even though Iroh, unlike most of the other beach goers was dressed at least somewhat.

Iroh decided to take a slight risk and reached down to grab Mako’s hand. Mako looked down at their linked hands for a moment, but didn’t pull them apart.

Iroh thought their heart might beat out of their chest at the feelings that surged through them when Mako squeezed their hand and didn’t let go.

They turned around when they reached the beach marker and made their way back to their blanket. 

“So, still weird?” Iroh asked, sitting down next to Mako.

“No,” Mako replied, “just a normal beach, though the beaches on this side have better sunsets.”

Iroh laughed. “That’s because they are facing the sunset,” Iroh said, reaching over again for Mako’s hand. Mako laced their fingers together.

Iroh looked down at their hands for a moment before turning toward the sunset. Maybe Mako did like them back after all, maybe Iroh just needed to be clearer. They looked towards Mako, and the way the setting sun caught his hair.

They would wait until tomorrow to tell him, just in case. Iroh wanted this night to stay peaceful as the two watched the sunset together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These people are an absolute mess, all of them.
> 
> Mako at a nude beach: The only thing interesting to look at here is the hot General standing next to me. That's it.
> 
> Sorry if there are a more mistakes than usual I didn't have the time for in-depth editing.


	4. Day 4: Operation Makursa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra tells Iroh some wrong information, Bolin sets up a blind date and Mako quizzes Ursa on Iroh.

\----Asami----

Asami woke up to an empty bed. She sat up, feeling out beside her. The bed was cool where Korra slept last night. Asami looked around her at that point, taking in the room. Opal was still sound asleep in the cot brought into the room for her, but Korra was nowhere to be seen.

Asami stretched slightly before getting up to change and going to look for her wayward girlfriend. Korra had been slightly upset since yesterday when her plan to get Iroh and Mako together failed. Asami wasn’t sure why her girlfriend was trying so hard.

She found Korra sitting on the roof outside their window. Apparently, her girlfriend was taking cues from the Royal family now.

“Hey,” Asami said, crawling out the window to join Korra. “Are you okay?”

“Fine, just trying to figure out how to fix what happened yesterday, or well, more trying to figure out just how figure out what’s happening in Mako’s head,” Korra said.

“A truly difficult endeavor,” Asami joked. Korra laughed and Asami smiled as the bright noise bounced off the surrounding trees.

“It always is,” Korra said, before sighing. “I know we said we would orchestrate something but I’m scared it’s going to end like yesterday did.”

“Would that be a bad thing?” Asami asked. “They seemed rather cuddly when they returned from wherever the two had disappeared off too.”

“But that wasn’t us,” Korra said, “and we will need more than that to know how Mako feels.”

“Why is this so important to you?” Asami asked, placing a hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Korra said, resting her chin on her knees. “I guess, I just want him to be happy. I still love him you know? Not romantically, anymore but he’s my best friend and he’s been so supportive towards our relationship, that I just want him to be happy. I know he’s lonely and I don’t want him to be.”

Asami was quiet as she gathered her own thoughts. She too had noticed their ex-boyfriend’s loneliness. He hid it behind jokes and work but it was clear to anyone who knew him well. She still wasn’t sure about Korra’s matchmaking but Korra might just be on the right track. Maybe Mako would be less lonely and more relaxed with a partner. He was far from the eighteen year old failing horribly at his first relationships, thankfully they were all far past that point in their lives, so this could be good for him.

“We could always just follow them around?” Asami suggested.

“Stalking?” Korra asked, looking at Asami curiously.

“Uh, no?” Asami said, realizing that’s exactly what she had just suggested.

Korra shrugged. “We were going to force them into a situation then watch, maybe stalking is a step down at this point,” Korra said.

Asami laughed. “I guess so,” she agreed, looking out over the water. “Looks like luck is on our side, Mako’s already awake and on the beach.”

“Iroh’s not though,” Korra said. “They’ve gone jogging though the woods.”

“Well, they have to come back at some point so there’s no reason to not go follow Mako for when they do,” Asami said, standing and pulling Korra up after her. The two ducked back into their room.

“Um,” Opal said, her eyes still clouded over with sleep. “What?”

“We were just sitting on the roof,” Korra explained, as she changed into actual clothes.

“Oh,” Opal said. Her usual chipper tone was gone this early in the morning. For now, she just seemed confused as she faceplanted back into her pillow.

Asami and Korra left her to it and crept out of their room. They grab some fruit from the kitchen, whishing Bumi a good morning, as they passed through.

“And where are you to love birds going?” Bumi asked.

“To spy on Mako,” Korra replied, with no hesitation.

It said a lot about Bumi and his family, both sides of it, that his only response was, “Have fun.”

Asami wondered if his answer would have been different if he knew they planned to also spy on his son. It probably would have been the same, knowing him.

Asami stepped out on the beach, Korra following her. It was harder to spot Mako on the same level as him but they finally found him down by a set of tide pools.

Mako was bent over looking deeply into one of the tide pools. Asami fell back with Korra to watch him from behind a rather large rock.

Mako stood up, something held between two fingers and turned to look directly at them. They weren’t tucked behind the rock as far as they thought they were.

“You two okay?” Mako asked, peaking further around the rock to see them.

“Oh, us?” Korra said. “Peachy, just fine.”

“Did you want to look at the tide pools too?” Mako asked, sliding down the rocks towards them.

Asami glanced at Korra in panic. They should have known sneaking up on a detective wouldn’t work well. Mako was trained to notice suspicious things and would have known they were there.

“Yep,” Korra answered, quickly. “That’s exactly what we were coming over here to do, to look at the tide pools.”

“Right,” Mako said, looking at the two of them in confusion.

“So, what’s that,” Korra said, giving up on hiding and joining Mako on the rocks. Asami joined her, their cover beyond blown.

“Ah, it’s a snail,” Mako said, placing it down on his hand. “I thought it looked cool, so I picked it up.”

“Environmentally speaking you probably should have left it,” Asami said, looking closer at Mako’s hand.

Mako shrugged. “I’ll put it back,” he said, placing it gently down into the tide pool.

“So,” Korra said, dragging out the word, “how’d you know we were there?”

“You left foot prints,” Mako said. “I followed them behind the rock and you two were there.”

“Huh,” Korra said. Asami could see her mentally filing that away for later. “Well, we were-”

Korra was cut off by Iroh, jogging back down the beach. They must be heading back.

Iroh stopped by the tide pools when they saw the group.

“Hey,” they said, climbing up the rocks to join them. “What are you three doing?”

Mako’s eyes immediately snapped to Iroh.

Asami traded a look with Korra. Mako, while at first seeming overly prickly, was a very attentive boyfriend, at least when he wasn’t crushing on two people at once. Asami had once been under that laser focused attention and knew how addictive it could be, and how much it hurt when that attention was suddenly divided.

It was a good sign of Mako liking Iroh back, that his attention was now focused entirely on the General, even with Korra and Asami standing there.

“Looking at tide pools,” Mako answered. “You missed the snail. I just put it back but I can get it again if you want?”

Asami traded another look with Korra. Overly sweet and accommodating was also a trait of a Mako with a crush.

“No, it’s fine, let the little creature be,” Iroh said, finally reaching the rock the group was standing on.

“Well, Asami and I were about to head to town, if you too want to join,” Korra said.

Asami looked at her girlfriend in confusion. She thought they were still watching Mako.

“I thought you wanted to look at the tide pools?” Mako asked.

“Eh, changed my mind,” Korra said.

“Sure, then” Mako agreed, slipping his shoes on.

Iroh nodded as well and Korra led the group to the city.

“Our last double date plan didn’t end well,” Asami whispered in Korra’s ear. “What are you planning now?”

“I don’t want them to split up again, because then we can’t watch them,” Korra explained. “I’m hoping we can distance ourselves enough in the city so as to watch them without interfering.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of a plan,” Asami countered.

“So, I’m winging it,” Korra said. “I panicked a bit.”

Asami shook her head but went along with it.

When they reached the city center Korra immediately tried to separate them from the other two. “Asami and I were going to go shopping,” Korra said.

“Yeah, no, I’m good,” Mako said immediately.

Asami had to give her girlfriend credit, that excuse worked perfectly, as Mako, Iroh trialing behind, quickly walked off.

They kept watching the two but Mako didn’t show any other signs of liking Iroh, save for blushing slightly when Iroh pointed to a few bright red flowers on the side of the road. Fire Lilies, signs of everlasting love. That was pretty smooth and bold of the General.

Asami noticed Mako take interest in an ice cream stand but he ultimately walked past it. Korra had a gleam in her eye which told Asami she had noticed too.

“Hey, Iroh,” Korra called, dragging the General’s attention to them. Iroh walked over to them, reluctantly leaving Mako who collapsed on a bench and closed his eyes.

“Mako won’t admit it, but he wants some ice cream,” Korra said. “You should get him some.”

Iroh looked hesitant. “I don’t know, the last time you told me Mako would like something he left,” they said.

“Yeah,” Korra admitted, wincing slightly. “Not my finest moment, but I know Mako loves ice cream, particularly pistachio.”

“Pistachio?” Iroh questioned. They looked doubtful but Asami nodded in agreement. At least, Asami knew Mako liked a green ice cream and that sounded about right.

Iroh still looked vaguely suspicious but one glance at Mako and they were heading towards the ice cream stand.

Asami watched as Iroh bought two ice creams, one for Mako and one for themself.

She poked Korra in the side and gestured to Mako’s face. The blushing grin on his face, as Iroh carefully approached him, was very familiar to her.

Asami smiled to herself, thinking this plan might actually work, before a realization had her heart dropping.

“Wait,” Asami whispered. “Was it actually green tea ice cream?”

“No way,” Korra said. “Mako doesn’t even like green tea why would he like the ice cream.”

“Right,” Asami said. Mako didn’t like green tea, she knew that, but something still wasn’t sitting right with her.

Korra and her moved closer so they could hear the other two.

“Here,” Iroh said, handing Mako a cone. “I saw you eyeing the ice cream and Korra said you liked pistachio ice cream.”

Mako looked at the cone in confusion. “Uh, no,” Mako said. “That’s wrong but to be fair to Korra it’s been a while since we dated.”

“Mint,” Korra whispered, softly. “Gah, his favorite flavor is mint. Stupid, Korra, stupid.”

Asami shushed her. Her heart beating hard in her chest as she realized they had screwed up again.

“Ah,” Iroh said, “um, I can get you a different flavor if you want.”

“No,” Mako said, reaching for the cone. “I’ll eat it.”

“It’s not a problem,” Iroh replied, pulling the cone away. “You don’t have to eat something you don’t like. I’ll just get another.”

“I’d rather you didn’t, this is fine,” Mako said, reaching for the cone again.

“But you just said you don’t like pistachio,” Iroh said, confusion clear in their voice.

“But I also just said it’s fine,” Mako said, trying to snatch the ice cream. In the back and forth, the ice cream fell to the ground and splatted on the pavement.

“I’m sorry,” Iroh said, looking down at the ruined ice cream. “Seriously I can get you another.”

“I don’t want another, Iroh, stop,” Mako said, his voice slightly raised.

Iroh leaned away from him in surprise.

“Just, stop buying ice cream,” Mako said, his voice dropping to a softer tone. 

“You can have mine if you want,” Iroh suggested, holding out their own cone. Asami had to admit, Iroh had guts to keep trying to smooth over this disaster.

“No, I don’t want any now, okay, it’s just wasteful at this point.” Mako said. “Keep your ice cream.”

“But you were the one who wanted ice cream in the first place,” Iroh insisted. “I can get you more, if you don’t want mango. I just need to know what flavor.”

“It’s not about the, forget it,” Mako said, before walking off.

Iroh stared after him dejectedly as they took a slightly angry bite of their own ice cream.

“I am so, so sorry,” Korra said, coming up behind Iroh.

“Should have known better,” Iroh said. It wasn’t a nice thing to say, but it was fair enough. Korra and Asami had messed up twice now trying to help them.

“I was just trying to help,” Korra said.

“I know,” Iroh sighed. “I know. What I don’t know is what I did wrong this time.”

Asami winced. “Mako grew up poor, and he and his brother never waste food,” Asami explained. “Mako was probably mad that you wouldn’t let him eat the ice cream anyway and then he was twice as mad when it got ruined. He’s like that about things. Frivolous spending or left-over food make him uncomfortable. He’s gotten better in recent years, now that he has spare money to burn himself but he still gets like that sometimes.”

Iroh looked down at their ice cream. It was halfway gone.

“Right, another midfield of his to keep in mind then,” Iroh said, softly.

“He has a few of them,” Korra explained. “The key to Mako is to talk to him, but on his terms or he gets defensive and upset. Let him have his cool down and talk to him when he’s not riled up over essentially nothing. It’s what happened yesterday, too.”

“I suppose,” Iroh said. “Mako just confuses me. I feel like everything is perfectly fine one day and the next everything feels turned on its head.”

“Mako’s definitely good at mixed signals, mostly because he doesn’t know what he wants half the time himself,” Korra said. “But I do know one thing now.”

“What’s that,” Iroh prompted when Korra paused for dramatic effect.

Asami rolled her eyes but smiled at her girlfriend’s antics.

“He likes you back,” Korra said.

“How?” Iroh said, suspiciously looking Korra over.

“His attention is attached to you,” Asami explained. “He knew you had bought him ice cream the second you did it. He’s been watching you the entire time we’ve been in a group. He’s also being awkwardly nice. Mako doesn’t play nice with anyone he doesn’t like and even then, he doesn’t jump up to do anything for someone unless he really likes them. Also, you were a bit too focused on not tripping but the smile Mako shot you, when he saw you walking towards him? Classic dumbass Mako when he’s smitten. It’s the same look he shot me when I hit him with my scooter.”

“You hit him with a scooter?” Iroh asked.

“So, not the point,” Korra said. “The point is Mako likes you, and he probably has no clue what to do with that, so he’s constantly in a state of panic.”

“I see,” Iroh said, shoving the last of their cone into their mouth. Iroh turned to walk off before turning back to them.

“Stop,” they said, before continuing back to the beach house.

“Stop what?” Korra asked, but they never turned back around.

“Probably stop matchmaking,” Asami said. “We really should quit while we are ahead.”

“I guess, but they still aren’t together!” Korra insisted, marching off back to the beach house herself.

Asami sighed as she followed her girlfriend. Sometimes she really wished Korra knew when to give up.

\----Bolin---- 

Bolin woke up to an empty room, his brother already awake and off somewhere on the island. Pabu had taken up residence on Mako’s pillow and was sound asleep. He stretched, his back popping slightly, before heading off to look for Opal.

His last plan had failed horribly as Ursa had ended up running off after Bolin accidently pushed her and his brother into a fountain. He had tried to save the incident when Ty Lee mentioned something similar occurring between Lord Zuko and his wife, but Ursa and Mako both had marched off at that point.

Bolin had hoped when he and Opal finally got back to the house, having been dragged on a shopping trip by Ty Lee, that Ursa and Mako maybe did bond over the moment but Ursa was found back in the kitchen trying to make a monstrous desert with her father, Bumi and Mako didn’t return until after sundown with Iroh.

While Bolin was glad his brother seemed to be making a friend, or well making a better friend as the two apparently already knew each other, it wasn’t the goal he had in mind.

“Opal,” Bolin shouted excitedly, upon spotting his girlfriend by the pool. He wasn’t quite sure why the Royal family felt the need to have a pool and a hot tub when the ocean was also right behind their house.

“Hey, Bolin,” Opal said smiling up at him.

“So, I have a new idea,” Bolin said, sitting next to her. Opal’s face dropped.

“Bo, are you sure this is a good idea? I don’t think Ursa likes us and I’m pretty sure it’s due to the matchmaking attempts. She’s been trying to avoid us since yesterday, actually I think she was trying to avoid us before yesterday,” Opal said.

“What?” Bolin asked. “No way.”

Bolin paused for a moment as he thought over what his girlfriend said. Actually, yeah, Ursa did seem to be avoiding them. Maybe they should back off slightly, but his new plan was perfect.

“I think this one will work this time,” Bolin said.

Opal sighed. “Why are you so insistent on Mako dating Ursa in the first place? I know you said earlier that you want your brother to be happy, but why do you think he isn’t happy right now?” Opal asked.

“It’s just,” Bolin said deflating, “Mako hides things well, sometimes so well I can’t even tell, but he’s lonely. Like sure, he can go work out with Korra at the gym and he and Asami can geek out over the latest book they’ve read or he and I can go hang out but at the end of the day, Mako comes second. I love my brother, I do but if I’m ever going to grow up and figure myself out, I need to focus on me but most importantly I need to focus on you, because you’re my future.”

Opal gasped slightly, her eyes shining brightly as Bolin realized what he just said.

“Um, but, uh, well,” Bolin stuttered. “It’s the same with Korra and Asami. They may be Mako’s best friends but their relationship, what they build together comes first. While all of us, you included I’m sure, care about Mako, he’s not a priority in our lives and I think he knows that. He seemed really withdrawn before we came here and I just want him to have what we have.”

Bolin looked up at Opal and her face was soft as she looked at him.

“You are an amazing man,” Opal said, kissing him, “even if sometimes you miss the mark. I think your brother might be better off finding his own love, like Korra and Asami, like you and I, but if you really are dead set on this, I’ll still help you, but seriously you need to calm down or Ursa’s going to kill you.”

“Right,” Bolin said dragging the word out as he recalled the look on Ursa’s face the day before. She had seemed so happy telling them stories from her childhood that the sudden rage had been slightly startling. “So, my new plan is simple, I’m going to set up a half blind date.”

“What?” Opal asked. Her nose crinkled cutely in confusion.

“I’m going to set up a half-blind date,” Bolin repeated. “I’m not going to force Ursa into another uncomfortable situation she doesn’t want to be in. I’m going to outright tell her I’m setting her up on a date with Mako but Mako’s not going to know who he’s meeting till he’s there, otherwise he will back out.”

“That’s,” Opal said, pausing slightly, “not actually a bad idea.”

“See!” Bolin said. “Now we just need to figure out a date spot. I figured we could ask around the house, surely someone might know something.”

“Alright then,” Opal said, standing and helping Bolin to his feet.

They started easy, with someone familiar.

“Looking for a place to escape for the night, eh?” Bumi asked. He was leaned back in a hammock on one of the many patios the house had.

“Yep,” Opal said quickly, cutting Bolin off.

Bumi hummed. “Zooms and I often go hiking but that might not be your style. Though what you get at the end of those hikes might be,” he said.

Bolin’s eyes went wide at the implication. “What?” he squeaked out. He didn’t want to talk about that with Bumi.

“Oh, no, kid, no,” Bumi said, sitting up quickly and nearly falling out of the hammock. “The waterfalls! The hiking trails around here will usually take you down to a waterfall!”

Bolin and Opal both let out a sigh of relief at that, while Bumi shook his head.

“Right, now that all three of us have been socially scarred today, I’m going to leave you two be,” Bumi said, practically running off.

“Well, I know one thing,” Opal said.

“What’s that?” Bolin questioned.

“We are really good at chasing off royalty, even those married in,” Opal said. “What do you think of the waterfall idea?”

“Mako might like it but I don’t know if it has enough romantic weight behind it,” Bolin said scratching his chin.

They decided to continue asking around.

They ran into Lord Zuko, and after whisper shouting at each other, decided to ask him.

“Good morning Lord Zuko,” Bolin said. “Could we ask a tiny little question?”

Lord Zuko was currently sat at the edge of a pond, but he stood when addressed and tucked something up his sleeve. There was a soft quack from behind him.

“Of course, how may I be of help?” He asked.

“Uh, do you know of any dating locations on the island?” Bolin asked.

“Not many, no, thought my wife and I enjoyed the occasional picnic on the cliffsides,” he responded.

Bolin deflated slightly. There was no way Mako was going to want to go back to the cliffsides, so Bolin immediately scrapped that idea.

He still bowed respectfully before he and Opal left.

“Was he just feeding the turtle-ducks?” Opal asked.

Bolin looked at her in confusion. “No way, why would he be doing that?” he asked.

Opal shrugged. “That’s just what it looked like. I assume we are searching for another idea?” Opal questioned.

“Yep,” Bolin said, popping the p.

They didn’t have the guts to ask Fire Lord Izumi when they stumbled upon her, but she probably would have just given them the same answer as Bumi.

They found Ty Lee and Princess Azula curled up under an umbrella on the beach and after gathering all their courage made their way over to them.

“Hello, your highness, can I ask you a question?” Bolin asked.

“You already have,” Princess Azula replied, not taking her eyes off her book.

“Hey, my sun,” Ty Lee said, gesturing for Bolin to move over.

Bolin sifted slightly so that the sun still hit Ty Lee’s legs.

“Um,” Bolin said, trading a look with Opal.

Princess Azula sighed. “Ask,” she ordered.

“Uh, well, do you know any date spots on the island? I asked Bumi and your brother but neither of those answers were useful,” Bolin explained.

“Of course not, why would my brother ever have the right answer to something,” Princess Azula said, tossing her hair behind her.

Bolin didn’t know how to reply to that. He just stood there awkwardly until Princess Azula finally bothered to answer his question.

“Ty Lee and I often go to the theater to make fun of the productions,” Princess Azula said. “It is rather amusing, particularly when one of the actors overhears us and ends up crying.”

“I like the stage effects,” Ty Lee said, “They’ve gotten much better since we were younger.”

“I suppose,” Princess Azula said, looking down softly at her wife. Ty Lee seemed to be the only thing she softened for.

“Thanks for the idea,” Opal said, before dragging Bolin away.

“Hey, what?” Bolin asked.

“They were starting to flirt with each other,” Opal said, still pulling him. “I’m saving you.”

“Oh,” Bolin said.

When Opal had dragged him far enough away, the two collapsed on the steps leading up to the house from the beach.

“That was a bust all the way around,” Bolin complained.

“I mean, Bumi’s idea wasn’t that bad,” Opal said.

“I guess, I just wanted something more,” Bolin replied, throwing his arms out to demonstrate his concept.

That was when his eyes caught on the one royal they hadn’t questioned, well aside from Ursa herself. Iroh was walking slowly back towards the house. They seemed downtrodden over something.

“Hey, Iroh, you okay?” Bolin called.

“Not really,” Iroh replied.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Opal asked.

Iroh seemed to debate the issue for a moment before shrugging. “Not really, I just once again screw up with someone I really like in attempt to get them to like me back,” Iroh explained.

“I’m sorry,” Opal said, placing her hand on their shoulder.

“Yeah, buddy, that’s rough,” Bolin said.

“I’m getting used to it,” Iroh said, softly. Bolin’s heart hurt at the amount of longing he could hear in Iroh’s voice.

Opal continued to rub their back as the group sat in silence.

“Did you two need something?” Iroh finally asked.

“Huh?” Bolin replied.

“Did you need something?” Iroh repeated. “You called me over, was it just to check on me or did you need something?”

“Oh, well, not really, Opal and I are just trying to figure out date ideas, so far none of them have really been exciting,” Bolin said.

Iroh bit their lip. “There’s this restaurant, not too far from here, that sits on the beach. It’s opened all day but it’s best to go at high tide as the water reaches the table and flows over your feet. The tables and chairs are made of various different crystal material. It’s a really nice place and I’ve always wanted someone to take me there, or you know, to take someone there myself. It’s too romantic of a place to feel comfortable taking a friend but even if it wasn’t, I really want to go on a date there one day,” Iroh looked down. “Though, that doesn’t seem like it will ever happen.”

“Don’t say that Iroh,” Opal said. “You just have to find the right person. I’m sure when you do, they would love to take you there.”

Iroh smiled lightly. “I hope so,” they whispered, more to themself than to Bolin or Opal.

Iroh cleared their throat. “Sorry, for dumping my issues on you two, I’m going to go hide in my sister’s room now,” they said, before standing and disappearing into the house.

“This restaurant sounds perfect,” Bolin said. Opal glared at him. “What?”

“You are not going to use Iroh’s dream date on their sister!” Opal stated.

“Why not? Maybe it’s also her dream date!” Bolin insisted.

Opal huffed. “Fine, I still think it’s a bad idea though,” she said.

“It will be fine, now all we need to do is ask Ursa out for Mako and tell Mako he has a date,” Bolin said, standing up.

Opal sighed but followed Bolin on his search for Ursa.

Bolin found her sat on the roof, that seemed to be the place to find wayward Fire Nation royals. Bolin’s pretty sure he’s spotted even Fire Lord Izumi taking a short cut over the roof once.

“Hi, Ursa,” Bolin called up.

Ursa’s feet disappeared from the edge of the roof and she didn’t respond.

Bolin traded a look with Opal. His girlfriend had an I told you so look on her face.

“Um, if I set up a date with you and Mako would you be willing to go out with him?” Bolin asked, hoping Ursa hadn’t actually run off.

Ursa was silent for so long Bolin figured she had actually left.

“I’ll go on a date with your brother on one condition,” Ursa said, leaning down from the roof till she and Bolin were face to face. Bolin flinched back, not expecting Ursa to suddenly be in his face.

“Uh, what?” Bolin asked.

“You leave me alone for the rest of this vacation, all of you do, and next time Iroh invites you here, you’ll tell them no thank you,” Ursa said, flipping off the roof.

“I don’t think Iroh’s ever going to invite us anywhere after this,” Opal whispered under her breath.

Ursa didn’t seem to hear her, too busy glaring at Bolin.

“Uh, sure,” Bolin said, “though for what it’s worth, I’m really sorry if I’ve been annoying you.”

“Whatever,” Ursa said, walking off.

“High tide tonight,” Bolin called, “that restaurant with the crystal tables.”

Ursa paused for a moment before shaking her head and continuing on.

“That could have gone better,” Bolin said.

“Way better,” Opal agreed. “I suppose now we tell Mako.”

“Yeah, we should,” Bolin said.

Mako was harder to find, apparently, he had taken off on a walk down the beach.

“Hey, bro, you need to get spruced up,” Bolin said, throwing his arm over Mako’s shoulder.

“What? Why?” Mako asked. He looked bac at Bolin with his brows furrowed.

“Because you, dear my brother, have a date tonight,” Bolin said.

“What?” Mako asked again, this time with anger behind his words.

“Wait, wait, before you get upset, don’t worry. I will have everything set up perfectly for you,” Bolin said, holding his hands up in surrender.

Mako growled. “Who?” He asked.

“No way, it’s a secret, you’ll just have to show up to see,” Bolin said, patting his brother on the back.

He ignored the way Mako stared at Opal for help. Opal just shrugged.

\----Mako---- 

Mako knew he had blown up over what essentially amounted to nothing. Sometimes he forgot that he wasn’t that starving homeless kid anymore and that, while wasting food was never good, genuine accidents like what happened with Iroh, weren’t the end of the world.

He kicked at the sand as he walked, taking his frustrations out there rather than on something else. His anger wasn’t directed at Iroh anymore and was now firmly rooted in his own issues.

Mako knew he needed to apologize again but he was worried that Iroh wouldn’t accept it this time. Mako didn’t know why he kept getting mad but he had felt off kilter this entire vacation, though if he was honest with himself even before this vacation, and new feelings about Iroh weren’t helping.

He kept fucking up where Iroh was concerned. Every single time Iroh tried to do something nice or fun with him, Mako got jumbled up. He just didn’t know what to do with them. Yesterday had been nice, holding their hand as the sun went down had Mako’s stomach twisted in pleasurably uncomfortable knots. Mako had felt on cloud nine and was willing to admit, at least to himself that his crush on Iroh was getting intense.

Iroh made him extremely nervous, but it was also clear the two didn’t know each other as well as Mako originally thought. Asami, Korra and the rest of his friends, even Wu, who Mako had previously been crushing on, knew about Mako’s food insecurity. The fact that Iroh didn’t, meant that there was a lot they still needed to work through, if Mako’s hopes of a relationship would ever come true.

Mako was surprised to find the idea of putting in work didn’t turn him off the relationship. He supposed that was a sign of growth, as Asami would put it. He just hoped Iroh would feel the same, if Mako ever got up the guts to ask them, and if Mako hadn’t just ruined everything with his temper tantrum earlier. Clearly, he still has some growing to do in that department.

He already knew he was too defensive over things, but seeing how upset that defensiveness has made Iroh, really put it into perspective for Mako just how bad it actually was. He got mad over an ice cream cone, granted that wasn’t the actual issue, but still. He should have talked it out with Iroh instead.

With his head somewhat screw back in place, Mako made his way back to the beach house in the hopes of finding Iroh and begging for forgiveness again.

Instead he ran into his brother.

Bolin had set him up on a blind date. To say Mako was mad was an understatement. Mako didn’t want to spend the night with some random woman his brother set him up with. He wanted to talk to Iroh and maybe, if he could get the words out, see about a date with them. Mako wasn’t too confidant he’d be able to ask and he really wasn’t confidant that Iroh would say yes, but it was a nice idea to roll though his head.

Mako tried to get dressed for this sham of a date on his own, but Bolin wouldn’t leave the room and kept offering commentary on Mako’s outfit.

“She wouldn’t like that, I don’t think,” Bolin said, as Mako pulled on yet another shirt.

Mako was starting to get irritated with his brother. It didn’t even matter, Mako wasn’t going to keep dating them, no matter who was on the other side of the table from him.

“So, the date is at high tide at a restaurant down the beach with crystal tables,” Bolin said. “Opal went to set things up so if you can’t find it, she can take you down there. You’ll know your date when you see her.”

“Got it,” Mako said, absentmindedly, finishing buttoning the shirt Bolin told him to take off. Mako was going to wear it anyway, Iroh had picked it out for him, so he knew he looked just fine in the outfit.

“Hey,” Bolin said, quietly. “I’m sorry I ambushed you, but I really think you could be happy with her. She seems cool and she reminds me of you. Not very expressive of her emotions, serious and doesn’t put up with other people’s crap. I think you two will be good for each other.”

What Bolin said made Mako pause. Mako didn’t do well with dating people with similar dispositions to himself. Korra and him blew up due to matching tempers and Asami and him blew up due to matching insecurities. If whoever this girl was had a matching everything to Mako, this wasn’t going to end well.

Mako nearly told his brother as much, but Bolin looked really excited so Mako bit his lip instead and swallowed his pride. He’s be fine, even if it was the worst date ever, he’d be fine.

Hopefully, he’d never have to see this woman, whoever she was, again.

Mako finally made his way to the restaurant, passing Opal on the way who pointed him in the right direction.

Mako arrived and looked around, Bolin’s words from earlier echoing in his head. He’d know her when he saw her but he didn’t see anyone who looked like they might be waiting for someone other than an older woman. There was no way his brother set him up with her.

He looked around the area again before a voice caught his attention.

“Hey,” Ursa said, coming up behind him.

Mako jumped and turned. “You’re my date?” Mako asked, his eyes going wide. Of all the awkward situations his brother had managed to maneuver Mako into, this one had to be one of the worst. He was on a date with his crush’s sister.

“I’d say you could sound more enthusiastic but no offense, I don’t want to be here either,” Ursa said, leading him to a free table. 

His brother could have told him not to bother with shoes, as now Mako’s running shoes were soaked with the tide rushing over them.

They sat in an awkward silence for a long time until a waiter came over to take their orders. Their appearance shattered the silence and when they left Ursa finally spoke up.

“I’m not the best at navigating social interactions, but your brother has been a real struggle these past few days, more than I’m used to,” she said. “Him setting up this date finally put things into perspective as to why he’s been acting weird. Like I said, no offense meant, you’re an okay guy but I’m already dating someone.”

Mako raise a brow. “Then why are you here?” Mako asked.

“Taking advantage of an opportunity. We go on a date, it doesn’t work out, Bolin leaves us alone about it forever,” Ursa said, leaning back as the waiter dropped off their food.

“Yeah, that was about my plan too,” Mako said. “No offense meant to you either, but I kind of had my sights set on someone else.”

“Iroh,” Ursa said, looking up at him. “Right? It’s Iroh you like? I hope so because I think you could take their mind off of the person whose been stringing them along. They like you, I’m sure of it.”

“That obvious?” Mako asked.

“Eh, considering how bad I am at reading facial expressions? A bit, but Iroh’s just as hopeless, if it makes you feel better,” Ursa said.

“I hope you’re right,” Mako said.

“Why? Planning on asking them out?” Ursa said, sitting up straight in excitement.

“Maybe,” Mako said, hesitantly rubbing the back of his neck. He could feel a blush creeping up his face.

“You should bring them here,” Ursa said. “They’ve always wanted to come on a date here. When your brother told me, this was where we were going, I knew he got the suggestion from Iroh.”

Mako huffed out a laugh. “So, what you’re saying is I should be here with Iroh instead?” Mako asked.

“Basically, you clearly don’t want to be here with me. I will admit the food’s good,” Ursa said, “but I’m not sure how I feel about how wrinkled my feet feel at this point.”

“At least you wore sandals,” Mako joked.

“At least I did do that,” Ursa agreed.

The tide around them disappeared and Mako could feel his shoes drying out quickly, as if the water had been pulled from them. He looked up at Ursa, he kept forgetting she was a waterbender.

“So,” Mako said, dragging out the word. “What can you tell me about Iroh that I might not already know?”

Maybe it was cheating to get the information from Iroh’s sister but Mako was tired of operating blind.

Ursa shrugged. “Iroh’s easy for the most part,” Ursa said before blinking. “Er, well, not that kind of easy, they’re just easy going. Iroh doesn’t get mad or upset for long periods of time and usually all it takes is an explanation for Iroh’s fuse to get put out. They just don’t have the disposition to stay mad.”

Ursa laughed. “They get it from Grandpa Aang,” she continued. “No one else in the family is as easy going, or well I supposed understanding is a better way to phrase it. Grandpa was always willing to listen to other perspectives and allow people to work out their anger or upset in a healthy manner. Iroh definitely didn’t get it from either of our parents or the rest of our grandparents. They will fight you for looking at them suspiciously.”

“Huh,” Mako said. “Were you two close to him? I know Iroh mentions Lord Zuko a lot but he rarely mentions the rest.”

“Iroh was more than me,” Ursa said. “I was too little to remember anything about him, but Iroh was six, maybe seven when he died. I was only four at the time.”

Mako did a double take. “Wait, how old are you?” Mako asked.

“Not a question you ask a lady,” Ursa said, but she answered anyway. “I’m 25 and Iroh’s just turned 27 in case you were curious. Why?”

“You just seemed closer to my age then that,” Mako said.

“Well, how old are you, then?” Ursa asked.

“22, nearly 23,” Mako answered.

“Ah, Iroh’s cradle robbing,” Ursa said, with a laugh.

“Nah, I’m cougar-panther hunting,” Mako said, surprisingly not missing a beat.

Ursa laughed harder. “Not sure Iroh counts as a cougar-panther but I suppose that’s fair,” she replied.

When they finally settled back down Mako got serious. If anyone knew Iroh well enough to give him an answer, Ursa did.

“In all seriousness,” Mako said hesitantly, “do you really think, if I asked Iroh out, that they would say yes?”

Mako held his breath waiting for Ursa’s answer. Something about his tone must have registered with her, as she seemed to be seriously contemplating his question.  
“I think it’s worth a shot,” Ursa replied. “Iroh’s a bit hung up on someone right now, but I think they are also very interested in you. I don’t want to get your hopes up and it turns out Iroh is still holding out hope for this other person, nor do I want you to end up a rebound, but I really do think you’d have a fair chance.”

“I kind of upset them earlier,” Mako said. “I got mad at something and over-reacted.”

“Iroh’s probably madder at themself for upsetting you than they are at you,” Ursa said.

“I don’t want them mad at themself,” Mako said, quickly.

“And I’m sure they don’t want you mad at yourself,” Ursa replied. “Sounds like a misunderstanding, just talk to them. It’ll be fine. Like I said, Iroh has our Grandpa’s outlook on life. They will probably be over it the second you explain yourself, if they aren’t already over it now.”

Mako wasn’t sure if he believed that.

“I’m serious,” Ursa said, reading the look on Mako’s face. “Iroh couldn’t hold a grudge to save their life.”

Mako nodded. He’d have to take her word for it.

He looked down at his plate a noticed they had both finished eating.

“So, are we good here?” he asked, gesturing at the table.

“Yeah, let’s pay and ditch,” Ursa said, standing from the table. As the two walked off, the tide slowly rose back up to the table with Ursa no longer holding it back.

They paid and walked back to the beach house together.

Mako noticed a flash somewhere off to his left but when he looked over it was gone. He wrote it off as a firebug, little flashing bugs common in the Fire Nation. He had yet to see one in person, but that looked like the descriptions he had come across.

He glared up at Iroh’s bedroom window, knowing his brother was watching them as they walked up. He noticed something else in the window of the room Bolin and Opal had originally slept in but upon closer inspection it was just a weird stuffed animal sitting in the window sill.

“Right, it was fun, but let’s not do it again unless, it’s an in-law bonding exercise,” Ursa said, trotting off without another word as Mako choked on his spit from her comment.

“Cool,” Mako said, his voice hoarse from coughing. Ursa was too far away to hear him.

“So,” Bolin said, as soon as Mako entered the room, “how’d it go?”

“It was okay, kind of like hanging out with Korra or Asami though. I don’t think anything more that friendship is in the cards there,” Mako said, pulling his shirt off. “If I’m honest it’s for the best though, as we are a bit too similar.”

Bolin deflated slightly.

“Sorry, Mako,” Bolin said. “I just really wanted you to meet someone nice here.”

Mako turned to look at Bolin in confusion.

“What do you mean?” Mako asked.

“It’s just, you seem lonely,” Bolin said, “and I was hoping Ursa might be the answer to that.”

“Bo, man, I’m not lonely. I just, had a relationship fall through before it really had the chance to become something right before we left to come here and it had me in a bit of a funk. Really, I don’t need a relationship, but if it makes you feel better, I do have my eye on someone currently,” Mako said.

Bolin lit up. “Oh, who? Do I know them? Is she pretty?” Bolin asked. “What am I saying, of course she’s pretty.”

Mako’s heart dropped as Bolin continued talking. Mako realized with growing horror that he had never told his brother he was bisexual. It was something he had realized while dating Asami and something Mako had buried after he and Korra broke up, along with relationships in general, until recently. With Korra and Asami coming out as bisexual, Mako had taken to asking the two for advice with his own sexuality.

He had forgotten. He was so used to Korra and Asami knowing, he didn’t even remember that he never told his brother.

Mako laid awake most of the night after that realization, Bolin eventually falling asleep once he realized Mako wouldn’t answer his questions.

Mako thought his biggest hurtle would be asking Iroh out, but it turned out his new biggest hurtle would be coming out to his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is going to hurt, wonder what that flash of light was?


	5. Day 5: A Wrench in the Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iroh sees a news headline that throws them for a huge emotional loop, Ursa finally loses it in regards to the Krew and Asami and her friends have a huge mess to clean up.

\----Iroh---- 

Iroh was exhausted. This vacation had gone from a promise of peace and quiet, to more heartache than Iroh though they could handle. As far as they knew, Mako was still mad at them. Unlike with the cliff incident, Mako didn’t search them out the night before to clear things up with them.

Iroh shuffled towards the sofa in the living room. It was where the house keepers usually left the mail. Iroh needed the newspaper, knowing their mother would quiz them on it later.

Iroh lifted up the newspaper and flipped it open to the front page.

They stopped breathing.

On the front cover of the newspaper were three images of Mako and Ursa. The first was the two falling into a fountain. Iroh had heard of the incident from their sister, who was starting to really dislike Bolin. 

In the second, the two were seated at a table at the Ocean’s Domain, the restaurant Iroh had suggested to Bolin. Had they realized Bolin was asking for date ideas for Mako and not himself and Opal, they wouldn’t have said anything. 

The third was an image of Ursa and Mako facing each other outside the beach house. Iroh didn’t have to imagine much, to see the two trading kisses shortly after the image was taken.

Ursa had told them, that first night everyone was here, that she was dating someone from Republic City, but Iroh would have never dreamed it would be Mako. They wondered how the two met.

Iroh finally managed to breath properly, a gasping weak thing that was followed by tears. They had thought, Korra had said, but no Mako was already taken, and by Iroh’s sister no less. They couldn’t ruin that for their sister, even as the idea tore their heart to shreds.

The house felt too small.

Iroh dropped the paper, not caring that it missed the table and landed on the floor. They took off. Running every morning was something they did to keep fit but now, Iroh was running to get away. Then needed to be as far away from the disaster their life was turning into, as they could get.

They didn’t stop running till they collapsed at the top of Ember Island’s dormant volcano. Iroh was huffing as they fell their knees and cried.

They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t feel happiness for their sister and her new relationship. Every time Iroh closed their eyes, they saw the image of Ursa and Mako sat across from each other at a table, in a moment Iroh wanted so badly for themself, they could scream.

They couldn’t do it. There was no amount of pretending they were fine when the person they had wanted so badly for three years, hung off their sister’s arm instead. Iroh thought there was a chance, but they had been fooling themself the entire time.

They just couldn’t do it.

Iroh wasn’t sure how long they had stayed up on the volcano, but after crying themself into exhaustion, Iroh tiredly made their way back towards the house.

The first person they saw, was the last person they wanted to see.

“Hey, we have more mango juice if you want some,” Ursa said, absentmindedly as she moved around the kitchen. Iroh watched their sister with a blank look. She had no idea that her relationship had thrown Iroh completely off the rails.

“Ro? Are you okay?” Ursa asked, turning to them. “You look sick. Do you want me to go get mom?”

“No,” Iroh said, not recognizing their own voice. Ursa did a double take. “No, I just wanted to congratulate you. I hope you two are ha-”

Iroh cut themself off, their voice trembling too badly to finish the sentence.

“Iroh?” Ursa asked, weakly looking at them in concern. “What’s wrong? What are you talking about? Congratulations on what?”

“I, I’m in love with your boyfriend,” Iroh forced out. “I’m sorry.”

“What? My boyfriend?” Ursa asked in confusion. “Iroh, what are-”

Iroh didn’t stay to hear what she had to say. Their chest felt too tight and they felt the need to run again. They knew they wouldn’t make it back to the volcano so they ran to the one room in the house where they knew no one would look for them.

Hopefully Lu Ten wouldn’t mind.

They crashed through the door and slammed it behind them. Their breathing was coming out harshly again.

Iroh locked the door and flopped down on Lu Ten’s bed and buried their face into the pillow.

Something soft fell on their head.

They sat up in confusion, with tear stains on their face, only to find a fire slug plushie resting next to their head.

“What?” Iroh asked.

One of the old school sketchpads Lu Ten had on his desk, flipped open violently.

Iroh, now slightly freaked out, slowly slid off the bed towards the desk.

_Help me, help you?_

Was written in ink on the page. There was no writing implements in sight and the words looked like they were written with a finger.

“Uh, Lu Ten?” Iroh asked the room.

_Yes._

“Oh, okay, so you have been haunting this room for years. Glad I’m not actually crazy,” Iroh said, shaking slightly. Surely Lu Ten wouldn’t hurt them.

_My room._

“Um, yes, uh, what did you mean by help me, help you?” Iroh asked, figuring they might as well lean into whatever this was. Leaving a family spirit in destress wasn’t a good thing to do, and since Lu Ten was talking to them, Iroh was now responsible for him.

_Burn something, tell you something._

“Uh, what do you want me to burn?” Iroh asked, looking around the room. There was a lot of stuff in there that could be holding him here.

Lu Ten aggressively turned the page having run out of room.

_Wardrobe, locked box, key under bed._

Iroh followed his instructions and found a flat box in the wardrobe with a really old skeletal key type of lock. They placed it on the desk so they could get the key.

Lu Ten apparently really hated that box as he knocked it off the desk.

“So just burn whatever is in the box?” Iroh asked, moving back to the desk.

_Yes._

Iroh opened it. There was only one thing inside and at first glance, Iroh assumed it was another sketchpad, but this was more similar to a journal.

Iroh flipped it open, only to have it go flying out of their hands.

“Hey, why can’t I look at it? I’m the one burning it! How do I know you aren’t trying to pull something here?” Iroh asked, the room.

_Privacy._

“No way, you’re dead and if this is some family thing you have me burning, I’m the one in trouble for it. I’m looking through it,” Iroh stated, lifting the book back up.

Lu Ten didn’t respond or steal the book back so Iroh figured they won.

It was a wedding planning book, carefully crafted by a young and enamored Lu Ten. There were various drawings of flowers and wedding attire designs. Lu Ten had picked out several wedding venues around the palace and had drawn them in such as way as to show how they should look for the wedding. It was clearly drawn by a young teen first learning how to draw properly.

“I don’t get it,” Iroh said. “Why does this need to be burned?”

_Around for father, but stuck cause embarrassment._

“You were attached to your dad till something embarrassed you enough to attach yourself to this?” Iroh asked. That had to be the oddest explanation for a lost spirit that Iroh had ever heard.

Lu Ten flipped the page so aggressively the sketchpad nearly flew off the desk. 

_Burn it!_

The words he wrote were messy and blotchy, telling Iroh he was using an ink well. Iroh then noticed the ink well on the corner of Lu Ten’s desk with the top popped off of it. They were tempted to closed it and see what Lu Ten did. 

“It’s just a wedding journal,” Iroh insisted, flipping the page and realizing just why Lu Ten wanted the book burned. “Ah, I see.”

Iroh recognized him from history books, and while Lu Ten wasn’t yet the best at drawing faces when he made this, it was clearly an image of Admiral Zhao, the man who was killed by the ocean spirit for killing the moon, though admittedly younger.

_Burn it! History can’t know!_

“You know what Lu Ten, that is such a reasonable request,” Iroh said, laughing slightly, “but you need to tell me what you know first, least I do this for you, and you disappear off to the family shrine.”

_BRAT!_

“Yeah, what of it,” Iroh replied.

_No date. Watched them. Stupid boy, hates Flameo. Set up. Man up, and ask._

“Okay, I don’t have a clue who Flameo is or what any of that means and secondly don’t tell me to man up. I’m not a man,” Iroh said.

The page flipped softer this time, as if Lu Ten knew he had trodden over something sensitive.

_Sorry, didn’t know. Boy single._

“What does that mean?” Iroh asked. “I’m not a boy either! Why can’t you write a proper sentence?”

_Fuck you, Hard._

Iroh leaned back from the desk. “Um,” they said, their eyes going wide.

_NOT LIKE THAT! Hard to write. Fuck you._

“Just try, because I have no clue what you’re telling me and until I do, this book is here for history to find, in all it’s embarrassing glory,” Iroh said, waving the book through the air.

It flew from their hands again.

“If you can do that, what’s stopping you from burning it yourself, or ripping it up?” Iroh asked, disgruntled that Lu Ten kept throwing things.

_Sprits can’t bend, stupid. Rips mend._

“Heh, right, I knew that,” Iroh said, picking up the book again. The page had been flipped while he was gone and now had a proper explanation on it.

_Mako, isn’t dating Ursa. Bolin, set them up. Ask him out, it’s getting painful to watch._

“You been watching us?” Iroh asked in horror.

_Entertaining, but painful._

“But, wait, if you’ve been stuck here, how do you know all these things?” Iroh asked,

_Not stuck in room, stuck near planner. Can leave room, when want._

Iroh stared down at the journal in disbelief. “Look, I appreciate you rooting for me but at this point Mako’s given me so many mixed signals, I can’t take anymore. Korra and Asami say he likes me, but his brother, Bolin seems to think he should date Ursa, which sucks because I thought he was my friend. Mako keeps getting irritated at me and you’re dead, so sorry but I’m not asking him out until I’m sure,” Iroh said, venting their frustrations out on the spirit they were essentially holding hostage.

_Won’t know till ask._

Iroh stared at the words on the page for a moment, before burning the book in their hands.

As the book crumbled to ash, Iroh looked in disbelief as words once again formed on the paper.

_Thank you. Ask him out!_

Iroh huffed but sat up straight as the oppressive weight and coldness of the room dissolved around them.

Ursa was never going to believe them.

Iroh stared at the page again.

“Won’t know till ask,” Iroh muttered to themself. “Won’t ask till know. Why is this so difficult?”

Lu Ten’s sketchpad had no answer for them.

Iroh’s heart couldn’t take anymore today and they had a lot to think about after talking to Lu Ten. Looking around the room, Iroh figured they had the time, and started sorting Lu Ten’s room.

Lu Ten’s clothes could go, though there were a few pieces that Iroh kept, intending to have them tailored to fit. Lu Ten’s sketchpads were flipped through and the sketches that had historical significance, such as the flooding of Caldera City in 88 A.G. and the fall of Ba Sing Se’s outer wall in 94 A.G., or family significance such as sketches of Great Granduncle Iroh, or Iroh’s grandfather Zuko and Great Aunt Azula as children, were kept for records. While, sketches of various men in various risqué poses were, appreciated and stored away with Lu Ten’s personal belongings, such as the fire slug plushie. The landscape and wildlife sketches were kept aside, in case someone wanted to decorate with them.

The work kept their mind busy, even ask “won’t know till ask” continued appearing in their vision as they went. They stayed in Lu Ten’s room till night fall. No one came looking for them.

Iroh was starving by the time they finished, and grabbed the box of Lu Ten’s personal belongings to give to their grandfather.

Iroh found him, and their mother, in the living room drinking tea. They placed the box on the table.

“I went through Lu Ten’s room, I haven’t thrown anything out yet, if you wish to make sure there isn’t anything important in them,” Iroh said. “There’s another box upstairs with stuff that might interest, historians, the family or just people in general if you want to look through it too.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” his grandfather said, “but thank you.”

“I’ll help you look through the rest, dad,” Iroh’s mother said. “It’s time we cleared out that room. Lu Ten’s been gone for a while.”

Iroh bit their tongue to keep from correcting their mother. Lu Ten had only been gone a few hours, actually.

“Your sister had been looking for you,” his mother said, with reproach. “In fact, so has Avatar Korra and her friends.”

“I didn’t want to talk to them,” Iroh said, looking away. “I needed to sort myself out.”

“And did you? Sort yourself out or did you sort Lu Ten out instead,” his mother said.

“Maybe,” Iroh said, knowing that was an unclear answer. The words, “won’t know till ask,” flashed in their vision again and Iroh turned away.

They stayed in Lu Ten’s room that night, startling their grandfather who came to look through the other two boxes.

“Still need space?” he asked, dragging the discard box closer to him.

“I don’t know,” Iroh said. Their grandfather nodded and remained quiet as he sorted through Lu Ten’s stuff. He only pulled out one thing from the box that Iroh planned to tossed. It was a small yoyo that must have had more sentimental value than Iroh gave it.

“How did you get him to leave?” their grandfather asked before leaving the room.

“What?” Iroh asked, startled.

“Lu Ten, how did you get him to leave?” He repeated.

Iroh stared at his grandfather in slight wonder. He had known all along, that’s why he had never cleaned out the room. He knew Lu Ten had still been in there.

“We, ah, traded favors, I helped him leave, he helped me stop being stupid,” Iroh said, sheepishly.

“Ah, but are you still being stupid?” their grandfather asked.

“Yeah,” Iroh said, pulling the covers tighter around them. “I think I am, but that’s a problem for tomorrow.”

Their grandfather hummed. “Goodnight, Iroh,” he said.

“Night, granddad,” Iroh replied, as their grandfather shut the door behind him.

\----Ursa----

Ursa had gone to bed the night before feeling more relaxed than she had all week. As far as Bolin would know, Ursa and Mako had given it their best shot and decided they didn’t want to continue seeing each other. With a hard, outright fail at his dumb matchmaking scheme, he’d be forced to leave them alone. As there was really no other option with such a set in stone, no for the answer.

Which was why she woke up, feeling like nothing could possibly bring her down. Maybe Avatar Korra and her friends would even be more fun to be around, now that Bolin had no reason to continue being weird. Though maybe not as Avatar Korra was also being weird for different reasons.

Ursa made her way downstairs, surprised that she ran into no one on her way to the kitchen. Looking out the window, told her it was later than she realized, and most of the house would already be out and about.

She did find her Aunts Azula and Ty Lee in the kitchen with her grandfather.

Aunt Azula and her grandfather were arguing about something, while Ty Lee was reading the comics from the newspaper. Ursa passively made note to check it at some point in the day. 

Her mother would surprise quiz her and Iroh over current events. She said it would help them better in the long run to navigate political minefields. 

“Good morning, Ursa,” her grandfather said, turning away from his sister. Aunt Azula didn’t look pleased at being ignored.

“Morning,” Ursa replied, as she started digging through the fridge.

“There’s more mango juice, some your brother hasn’t licked all over, in there,” he said.

“Oh, yay,” Ursa said, shoving a leftovers container out of the way to find the jug of juice. “Found it, thanks.”

“So, what are your plans for today,” he said, continuing to ignore his sister, even as Aunt Azula took to flicking his ear.

“Hopefully, a lazy day,” Ursa said, “without our guest bothering me.”

“Yes,” Aunt Azula said, “I have found them bothersome as well. That earthbender asked us for date ideas, which was odd. He wouldn’t go away, even when I tried to make him uncomfortable. Luckily for him, his girlfriend is smart and dragged him away before I had to hurt him.”

“He asked you for date ideas too?” Ursa’s grandfather asked.

“Yes, he said your idea, as well as Bumi’s, were bad,” Aunt Azula said, flipping her hair behind her as her bother finally paid attention to her.

He huffed. “Bolin didn’t say anything to me about it,” he said.

“He was sweet wanting to take his girlfriend somewhere special,” Aunt Ty Lee said. “Even if he was invasive and blocked my sun.”

“I thought you liked the sun being blocked when you’re on the beach,” Ursa’s grandfather said, turning to her.

“Only my face, Zuko,” Aunt Ty Lee said. “How can I get a tan, if I don’t get any sun?”

Ursa’s grandfather looked at her in confusion before shaking his head and turning away.

Ursa, seeing an opening in the conversation, explained Bolin’s real reasoning. “He wasn’t asking for him and Opal. He was asking to set Mako and I up on a date,” Ursa said.

“The lightning bender?” Aunt Azula asked. “I approve.”

“Well, too bad we aren’t dating,” Ursa said, slightly bitter. “We went on a date to say we did, so Bolin had to accept we don’t want to go out but that’s it. Mako’s interest lay with a different Fire Nation Royal.”

“Mako likes Iroh then?” Aunt Ty Lee asked, practically coming across the table in her excitement. “Oh, that’s so cute! They would make a lovely couple.”

“I would hope so, there aren’t very many young royals around,” Ursa’s grandfather said.

‘Yeah,” Ursa said, heading off the argument she could see brewing between the three. “He likes Iroh, and I hope he plans to ask Iroh out at some point today. It will be great.”

“Well, so long as he marries into the family somehow,” Aunt Azula said. “That kind of power and ability belongs in our family. He will make a fine addition.”

Ursa wasn’t sure what to do with such a creepy statement, so she just smiled and turned away.

Eventually, she was left in the kitchen by herself, for all of two minutes before her sibling walked in.

“Hey, we have more mango juice if you want some,” Ursa said, to Iroh as she headed over to the cabinet with the cups in them.

Ursa turned to look at Iroh when they didn’t respond. Iroh’s face was blank and they appeared to be staring at something far beyond the wall they were actually looking at.

“Ro? Are you okay?” Ursa asked, concerned as they barely turned their head to look at her. “You look sick. Do you want me to go get mom?”

“No,” Iroh said. Ursa did a double take. She had never heard her sibling sound like that. Their voice was complexly monotoned and sounded almost dead. “No, I just wanted to congratulate you. I hope you two are ha-”

Iroh’s voice trembled as they spoke and cracked on the last word. 

Ursa’s brow furrowed. She had no clue what they were talking about. 

“Iroh?” Ursa asked, her own voice coming out strained as she looked at Iroh in concern. “What’s wrong? What are you talking about? Congratulations on what?”

“I, I’m in love with your boyfriend,” Iroh threw out. “I’m sorry.”

“What? My boyfriend?” Ursa asked in confusion. “Iroh, what are-”

She never got an answer, as Iroh pushed past her and ran further into the house.

Ursa stood in shock in the kitchen. She didn’t have a clue how her brother figured out she was dating Tahno, the former waterbending captain of the White Falls Wolfbats. They had been extremely discrete in their relationship since they first met at President Moon’s wedding. 

The pro-bender, turned jazz musician had swept her off her feet. He could be a bit full of himself at times, but he was, in general a great guy to be around. Though, he apparently used to be a horrible person. His own words, not hers.

To know that the man Iroh was so hung up on was her own boyfriend, shocked Ursa. She supposed the world was smaller than she thought.

Ursa sat down at the kitchen counter. She didn’t know what to do. She really like Tahno, a lot, but was it enough to risk her relationship with Iroh? Was there even really a point to it? Would Tahno even like Iroh back and more importantly, would breaking up with Tahno make her just as miserable as Iroh just seemed?

She felt like there was no right answer to this question, where both of them could be happy. Iroh’s numb face flashed across her eyes and she knew whatever her decision would be, it would need to fix that numbness in their eyes, without somehow making her just as numb.

She had so hoped that Mako would help take Iroh’s mind off their unrequited love but instead Mako and Iroh seemed to be fluctuating between hot and cold, though Ursa had no real clue why that was the case. Mako liked Iroh, he had said as much and Ursa knew what Iroh with a crush looked like. They liked Mako, maybe not as much as they supposedly loved Tahno, but enough for something to happen.

Ursa bit at her lip slightly, hoping her sending Mako in Iroh’s direction wouldn’t end horribly. The last thing she needed was for Iroh to think she was trying to pull something, or for her to have broken another person’s heart by leading Mako down the wrong road.

Ursa dropped her head in her hands as she ran through ideas over and over again. This was a disaster and she had no clue where to even begin with fixing it.

Ursa lifted her head up from where it was buried in her arms to look around the kitchen, as if the appliances would hold the answers to all her questions. Her eyes picked up on the newspaper Aunt Ty Lee had left on the table and she felt rage ignite throughout her body as she took in the headline.

On the front cover of the newspaper read the headline “Princess Ursa’s Mysterious Republic City Lover Revealed as Detective Mako, Member of Team Avatar”. There were pictures of their fake date the night before, as well as that stupid fountain incident. 

Her brain started working overtime to connect the dots. Iroh thought her Republic City boyfriend was Mako, not Tahno, which meant the man they had been pinning over for three years was the detective this entire time. Iroh thought they were dating and was now upset with her because of a blind date.

This was Bolin’s fault.

No, Ursa could be fair, this was the fault of all of Avatar Korra’s friends somehow.

Ursa stood up from her seat so quickly the chair fell and slammed against the tile. Ursa was so mad at that point she didn’t even bother to check to see if it cracked or not. Her mother could just be angry with her about it later.

She searched the house, from top to bottom, avoiding Lu Ten’s hunted room least her grandfather’s cousin’s ghost, consider her a threat and attack her. Not, that she would ever tell Iroh that she believed them, that night they had a seance in that room.

She couldn’t find them, and assumed they left the house, so she looked for a new target.

She found the group, minus Mako, around the pool and wasted no time swirling the four up into a whirlpool and freezing them in the air. Avatar Korra quickly countered the move, but Ursa had their attention.

“What was that for?” Avatar Korra yelled.

“For you and your friends systematically fucking up the relationship I have with my sibling!” Ursa shouted back.

The Avatar recoiled back.

“What?” she asked.

“Don’t what me,” Ursa growled. “Since you all have gotten here, all you’ve done is fuck things up.”

“I don’t think that’s very fair,” Asami said.

Maybe it wasn’t, but Ursa was beyond mad at what was occurring. Iroh was hurting, which meant someone needed to be hurt for making them cry.

“Iroh’s confidence has taken, hit after hit and on top of that, this idiot,” she gestured towards Bolin, “has been trying to set me up on a date with the man my sibling is in love with! I already have a boyfriend! Iroh’s in love with Mako! You people need to stop!”

Ursa panted harshly before lunching into another rant as Avatar Korra and her friends looked on in shock.

“You knocked me into a fountain, you set up a failed date for Iroh and Mako, you set up a date for Mako and I that ended with the paparazzi splashing our faces on the cover of the newspaper that sent my sibling into an emotional tailspin and now I can’t even find them. On top of it all, if my actual boyfriend sees it, he might break up with me!”

“We can fix this,” Avatar Korra insisted.

“No!” Ursa shouted. “No, just stop, touching things. You’ll make things worse. Mako likes Iroh back. Just leave them alone and trust they can figure things out without you medaling in their affairs.”

“Mako likes men?” Bolin asked.

Ursa stared at him in disbelief.

“Normally, I would never out someone against their will, but that’s too late now so I’m just going to say yes and leave it at that,” Ursa said. “I can’t believe you tried to set your brother up without knowing his sexuality. No wonder you failed so badly.”

“Ursa, we are really sorry for everything that’s happened,” Opal said.

“Yeah, you like apologizing Opal, but do you know what says more than words? Actions, do not interfere in Iroh’s love life, or my own again, or you’ll see just how much I can take after my Aunt Azula,” Ursa threatened.

Ursa marched off from them, not caring in the slightest if they now hated her, quite frankly, she kind of hated them.

She crashed into her father as she rounded the corner.

“Whoa, where’s the fire,” he joked.

Ursa took one look at her father before bursting into tears.

“Iroh hates me,” she said, launching herself at her father.

“Hey, hey,” he said, rubbing her back. “That can’t possibly be right. Iroh couldn’t possibly hate you. It’s not in their nature.”

“You don’t get it,” she said. “Iroh likes Mako but thinks Mako doesn’t like them and that Mako and I are dating. They looked so defeated, dad and I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t even know where Iroh is to fix this.”

“Okay, shh,” he said, pulling her in tighter. “You just need to talk to Iroh when you get the chance and clear things up with them. Iroh doesn’t hold grudges. They may be hurt now but when you explain that you aren’t dating, they won’t be hurting thinking they lost their chance. Just calm down sweetheart. You and Iroh are made of some pretty strong stuff.”

“But what if this breaks us,” Ursa asked, her lower lip trembling. Her and Iroh were so close, the idea of losing that hurt her.

“It won’t and you know how I know it won’t?” Ursa’s father asked.

Ursa shook her head.

“Because Iroh decided to step aside. That’s why they were so upset. When they thought you were in a relationship with Mako, they decided your happiness meant more to them, even if it hurt, and I bet, you would do the same too. You two are stronger than this, baby girl, now go find your sibling and make nice,” he said.  
Ursa nodded.

“Well,” he corrected, looking at the sun setting, “maybe let everyone cool their heels tonight and talk rationally in the morning.”

Ursa nodded again, slightly less enthusiastically and trudged up to her room. She collapsed on her bed and screamed into her pillow.

She could only hope that everything could be smoothed over tomorrow.

\----Asami----

Asami woke up wrapped around her girlfriend. Korra, unlike the day before, was sound asleep next to her. Opal, on the other hand, was wide awake and sitting up on her cot.

“Hey,” Opal said, noticing Asami awake. “Are you two okay? You both looked upset last night when you went to bed.”

“We, um, kind of messed something up for Iroh and felt really bad about it,” Asami said. “Hopefully, Iroh can fix it on their own, because now they are mad at us and won’t let us help.”

“I know how that goes,” Opal said. “I’m pretty sure Princess Ursa wants Bolin and I dead.”

“What?” Asami asked. “Why, what happened?”

“Bolin just won’t leave her alone,” Opal said. “He’s been trying to set her up on a date since we got here and she just keeps getting more and more irritated with him, and me by association. I’ve tried to get Bo to stop but he’s insistent. He finally got her to go on the date, but I think she just agreed to get him to leave her alone.”

Asami stared at Opal in confusion. Why was Bolin trying to set up Ursa on a date?

Before she could ask, Korra started shifting awake next to her.

“I think I’m going to grab breakfast and hang out by the pool if you two want to come down after,” Opal said, standing to get dressed really quick. She left as soon as she was dressed to give them privacy.

“That sounds fun,” Korra said. “I just realize we spent so much time matchmaking we haven’t really been vacationing.”

“Yeah, but we can remedy that now that Iroh has told us to stop,” Asami said.

Korra pouted and Asami stared at her.

“No, Korra,” Asami said. “I don’t care what’s racing through your head right now. Iroh said stop, you need to stop.”

Korra sighed before looking at her hands in her lap. “I know, but I just feel so useless. I really wanted to help Iroh and I wanted Mako to get a happy ending like the rest of us,” Korra said.

“Mako can get there in his own time, Korra,” Asami said. “It’s not a race and Iroh specifically said, they don’t want our help anymore.”

“I guess so,” Korra said. “I just feel really bad.”

“I know,” Asami replied. “I do too.”

Asami felt really guilty, particularly with their stunt the day before. Watching Iroh go from dopey and love struck to heartbroken, had upset her greatly. They should have just left it.

Without Korra’s ice cream plan, Iroh would have joined Mako on the bench. The two could have talked and joked and maybe even flirted a bit. Maybe Mako would have gotten up the courage to ask, or Iroh would have noticed on their own and offered to buy Mako some ice cream. Mako would have told them what flavor and the two would have sat back on the bench. The sexual tension would have built up as the two watched each other’s lips and tongues move over the ice cream and then they would have kissed.

Asami shook herself. She clearly watched too many romance movers. This kind of thinking was exactly what got Asami so invested in her girlfriend’s schemes, in the first place.

“Look,” Asami said, “If Iroh and Mako don’t get things sorted, then we can talk to Mako and explain what happened. That we were trying to set them up but it backfired. Then Mako can be mad at us instead of Iroh.”

“I hate this,” Korra said.

“Let this be a lesson to us then,” Asami joked. “We are horrible matchmakers.”

Korra laughed before standing from the bed.

“No more moping,” Korra said. “Let’s get dressed and go find Opal.”

Asami nodded in agreement, though getting dressed was easier said then done as Korra lifted her tank top over her head. Asami raked her eyes over her girlfriend’s topless form, before shaking herself and turning away.

Technically they had all the time in the world for Asami to ravish her girlfriend, but this was also Opal’s room and while the other woman had left, it still wouldn’t be fair to her.

Asami pulled on her newest one piece. Korra surprisingly had gotten a two piece before they even came to the Fire Nation. They were rare in Republic City due to the taboo of showing so much skin.

With her bathing suit in place she turned around to find Korra having watched her get dressed. A slight flush was present in her cheeks as she moved forward. Korra gave her a light kiss before grabbing her hand and dragging her towards the pool. They stopped to grab a few pieces of fruit from the kitchen, ignoring the cuddling Bumi and Fire Lord Izumi were doing by the fridge.

Their relationship was still kind of a head trip, even if they were slightly cute.

They found Opal, and Bolin by the pool.

Bolin was fully in the water splashing about while Opal sat on the rim of the pool with Pabu in her lap.

“Hey, mind if we join?” Korra sked, not waiting for an answered before practically jumping on top of Bolin. The two went under the water and Bolin came back up coughing from unexpectedly being dragged down.

Asami laughed and sat next to Opal.

“Does this feel like the first day anyone has taken a break since they got here or is it just me?” Asami asked.

“No, you’re right,” Opal said. “I don’t think I’ve stopped moving since we got here. This vacation’s been more stressful than relaxing but to be fair, it was originally intended as a business trip.”

“I forgot all about that in the excitement of being here,” Korra said, her eyes going wide. “We can’t leave without that information, even if we have to kidnap Lord Zuko for it.”

“Can you just imagine?” Bolin said. “Oh, don’t mind us Iroh, please ignore the fact that we have dragged your grandfather onto your airship and don’t plan to release him.”

Asami laughed half-heartedly. Something told her if they did something like that, Iroh would finally snap and just kill them, royal propriety and world politics notwithstanding. 

Korra and Bolin quickly went back to their splashing fight and Asami gave up on trying to keep dry and slid into the pool to join them. She ended up teaming up with Bolin as Korra was using waterbending to cheat.

Opal eventually joined them too, Pabu having taken refuge in a tree after being splashed one too many times. With an airbender who could blow the water back in Korra’s face, now on their side, the tides became fairer and they ended up winning the splash fight, when Opal swept Korra’s wave back over the top of her.

With all of them drenched, Korra and Bolin took to trying to out swim each other, Korra obviously winning as she once again used waterbending to aide her. Opal and Asami sat that one out.

They spent the rest of the day out by the pool splashing and carrying on. Bolin and Korra found a net and a Kuai ball and Opal and Asami rejoined them in the water, hitting the ball back and forth for three rounds before they tired and laid down on the lounge chairs.

Their relaxing break was abruptly ended.

Asami gasped as she and her friends were suddenly swirled up into a whirlpool from the pool water and frozen in the air. Korra quickly freed them, and they came face to face with Ursa. Asami had never seen the woman so angry.

“What was that for?” Korra yelled. Asami grabbed her arm to keep her from doing something rash before they got their answers.

“For you and your friends systematically fucking up the relationship I have with my sibling!” Ursa shouted. Asami’s heart started beating fast as she heard the hurt underlying Ursa’s anger. 

Korra stepped back slightly into Asami’s side. Asami had no clue what Ursa was referring too.

Asami had barely even spoke to the other woman, but then she recalled with clarity that Opal and Bolin had been messing with her, and whatever it was they did clearly, had an effect on Ursa.

“What?” Korra asked.

“Don’t what me,” Ursa growled. “Since you all have gotten here, all you’ve done is fuck things up.”

“I don’t think that’s very fair,” Asami said, though it wasn’t really a wrong assessment. None of them had meant any harm.

Ursa clearly didn’t care and launched into a rant that left Asami shaken. Her and Korra hadn’t meant to crush Iroh’s self-esteem but it seemed most of Ursa’s rage was actually directed at Bolin.

Asami had no clue that while Asami and Korra had been trying to set Mako up with Iroh, Bolin had actively been working against them, setting Mako up with Ursa. This was, a lot more of a disaster than she thought it was.

Apparently even the newspaper had gotten wind of the chaos Team Avatar was bring down on the Fire Nation royal family. Asami was going to guess they wouldn’t be invited back, and would in fact be lucky if they didn’t ruin their relationship with them all together.

Fire Lord Izumi may be Fire Lord now, but one day Korra would need to deal with Fire Lord Iroh II and doing so as someone who destroyed their love life, probably wouldn’t be good.

Ursa’s rant ended and Asami could hear the fear in her voice as she worried about her boyfriend breaking up with her. Not only had they ruined the potential between Iroh and Mako, they may have ruined Ursa’s relationship as well.

“We can fix this,” Korra insisted.

“No!” Ursa shouted. “No, just stop, touching things. You’ll make things worse. Mako likes Iroh back. Just leave them alone and trust they can figure things out without you meddling in their affairs.”

“Mako likes men?” Bolin asked.

Asami’s head whipped around to Bolin. There was no way Mako hadn’t told him before now, but then again, he had only just told her and Korra when he was figuring things out.

“Normally, I would never out someone against their will, but that’s too late now,” Ursa said, sounding genuinely regretful that she accidently outed Mako to his brother, “so I’m just going to say yes and leave it at that. I can’t believe you tried to set your brother up without knowing his sexuality. No wonder you failed so badly.”

“Ursa, we are really sorry for everything that’s happened,” Opal said.

Ursa didn’t take that very well, but she was right. Actions did speak louder than words, and right now their actions weren’t saying anything good. They needed to fix this, but for once Asami had no clue how. This wasn’t a machine; these were people and hurt feelings.

Ursa left them awkwardly standing around the pool.

“Why didn’t she just tell me she was already dating someone!” Bolin shouted. “I would have figured something else out.”

“Her saying no, should have been enough,” Opal whispered softly.

“She never said no,” Bolin insisted.

“Maybe not in word, but in body language and through suggestion, she never said yes either, not willingly,” Opal pointed out. “She told us she was uncomfortable around us then you strong-armed her into hanging out with us for the day.”

“Well, she could have just-” Bolin trialed off and glared off to the side.

“You’re not really mad at Ursa, are you,” Asami asked.

“Why didn’t Mako say anything,” Bolin asked.

“He was still figuring things out for himself not even a month ago Bolin,” Korra said. “The only reason Asami and I knew was because Mako asked us about being bisexual and how we figured it out.”

Bolin nodded, before hanging his head.

“We’ve really screw up, huh,” Opal said.

“You’re not the only ones,” Korra said. “Asami and I may have ruined Mako and Iroh’s friendship and potential romance.”

“But how do we fix it?” Bolin asked.

“We leave it be and hope cooler heads prevail,” Asami answered. “We enjoy our vacation and if the issue doesn’t solve itself, we gather Ursa, Mako and Iroh up and lay everything out on the table. It may not be able to be fixed and that’s the worst part.”

“I guess we found one thing Team Avatar isn’t good at,” Korra joked weakly.

Asami laughed slightly. “Yeah, saving the world is a piece of cake compared to this mess,” she said.

“Taking down Amon? No problem,” Bolin joked.

“Unalaq and Vaatu?” Korra continued, “Easy peasy.”

“The Red Lotus?” Asami said. “Barely an issue.”

“Kuvira?” Opal said. “Not even a problem.”

“Matchmaking, though?” Korra said. “We nearly destroyed a monarchy with it.”

They were all laughing at that point, which was about when Mako found them.

“What’s so funny?” Mako asked.

Mako flinched back as the four of them launched into apologies.

“Wh-what?” Mako asked, looking fearfully at them, as they continued to try and talk over each other.

Korra managed to get everyone calm before speaking.

“We are so sorry Mako,” Korra said. “We didn’t mean to screw things up so badly for you with Ursa and Iroh.”

“What are you talking about?” Mako asked. “Ursa and I are cool. We just handled whatever Bolin’s deal was last night. Iroh and I still haven’t talked about our issues but that’s only because I can’t find them but that’s my problem. I screwed up with Iroh. Am I missing something?”

“We’ve been trying to set you up with Iroh, while Bolin was trying to set you up with Ursa,” Korra admitted. “The whole thing with the ice cream being the wrong flavor was my fault. Iroh even buying you ice cream in the first place was my fault. I told them to.”

“Yeah,” Bolin said. “Then you and Ursa were splashed across the newspapers this morning and that’s my fault because I forced you on a date and Iroh must have seen it, because now Ursa’s mad and Iroh’s upset.”

“Iroh saw, Iroh thinks,” Mako stuttered, before dropping his head. “How do I ask them out now! Ursa said they liked me back, but after this? I’d never talk to me again. I don’t, I don’t know what to do now.”

Asami thought she couldn’t feel any worse but staring across at Mako’s lost expression made her feel like the worst person on the planet.

“No,” Korra said. “No, forget waiting and letting this sort itself out. We are going up to our room and the five of us are going to figure this out if it kills us and that’s the end of it. We aren’t going to leave Mako floundering in the mess we caused for him.”

Asami stared at her girlfriend before nodding in agreement. Mako didn’t look to confident but Asami wondered if maybe, just maybe with the team working together fully, and Mako at the heart of the matter, they could get it right this time.


	6. Day 6: The Fire Day Festival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bolin and Mako make up as the Krew tries to figure out a way to help Mako. Iroh makes up with his sister then makes out with Mako, while Lu Ten takes up a job as a guardian ancestral spirit. The Korra and the Krew get to finally enjoy their vacation, a few minor explosions aside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 4th of July, I'm kidding but not really, the 4th was the entire inspiration for this story, it just spiraled out of control and now there's matchmaking and ghosts in it.

\----Bolin----

Bolin waited. He didn’t want to wait. He wanted to shake his brother until a reason fell out, but Mako was already upset about everything going on with Iroh and Bolin didn’t want to push him right now. He’d push him later, when tensions were lower.

It just really hurt, that Mako never told him. They had always been close to each other and Bolin didn’t think there was anything he didn’t know about his brother, but now, if Mako could hide something like this, what else could he hide?

Bolin watched Mako the entire time they were planning.

Some ideas were tossed quickly, such as kidnapping the Heir to the Fire Nation Throne or a really odd plan involving Bumi that basically evolved into blackmail. Bolin wasn’t sure he wanted to know how Korra found out half the things she knew about her predecessor’s kids. Asami put her foot down when the threating overtones started. She wasn’t wrong when she pointed out, that maybe threating a person’s father wasn’t the way to win their heart.

Some ideas were tossed around but ultimately scrapped, like the giant display of affection with rose petals and signs that Opal came up with. It was ultimately sweet but not very Mako and would probably come off as fake.

Asami suggested getting Ursa’s help with planning, as she knew her sibling the best but everyone else vetoed her. None of them felt like dying over this and Ursa would probably kill the next one of them who tired to talk to her.

Korra threw out the most horrifying pick-up line in existence that ended with an off-topic discussion of their dating history. Bolin wasn’t aware it was a competition until Mako was disqualified over crushing on Prince Wu.

Which brought Bolin right back to his original issue. Mako spoke so comfortably to Korra and Asami about his attraction to men but had never said a word to Bolin about it. Bolin had to find out from Ursa, who while not meaning to, threw Bolin for the biggest loop of his life.

Bolin didn’t have any issue with his brother being bisexual, he just had issue with not being told.

“What about this,” Korra said, “what if we send Iroh on a scavenger hunt? They can pick up the pieces that give them clues as to why everything went wrong and explanations for what actually happened. Then once they are clued in, they will run into Mako who can confess his feelings. That way Mako can’t fumble through an explanation and we don’t have to interfere beyond setting it up.”

“That sounds way more complicated than it needs to be,” Mako said, rubbing his eyes. It was nearly two in the morning and all of them were starting to get tired, their ideas becoming more and more crazy as time passed.

“Mako’s right Korra,” Asami said. “There’s no real point to that. It might even make Iroh mad and then they might leave before they finish, or they might miss a piece of the puzzle causing even more confusion.”

“Mako’s better off just telling Iroh,” Opal agreed. “Really, all this matchmaking and plotting has done is cause chaos. Maybe just talking is the answer.”

“But every time I talk to Iroh, I say something stupid or rude!” Mako groaned, falling back onto the blanket pile behind him. He covered his face with his hands and took a shaky breath that had everyone in the room looking at him with guilt.

“Yeah, no offense, but Mako’s at his most romantic when not talking to people he’s crushing on,” Korra said, “and even that’s not romantic.”

“What about writing them a note?” Bolin suggested. “Can’t screw up the words as easily and it’s a direct way to get information to someone without confusion.”

“That might actually work,” Korra said, yawning. 

“We can write the letter in the morning, or well later in the morning,” Asami said, “for now we all needed sleep.”

Korra crawled into her and Asami’s bed with Asami following her, while Opal moved to her cot and Bolin and Mako slept on the temporary pallet they made out of blankets.

Bolin waited. He waited until Opal’s breathing came out slow and steady, Asami’s soft snores filled the room and Korra’s sleep mumbling started up before turning to Mako who was staring at the ceiling.

“I know you’re mad at me,” Mako finally whispered into the silence of the room.

“What? No! Mad? No!” Bolin stumbled slightly over his words before re-evaluating. “Actually, yeah man, I am mad, why’d you never tell me? How long have you known? You said when we were little, we’d never keep things from each other, because it could be life or death, so why’d you keep this from me?”

Bolin wouldn’t look at his brother but he could hear the deep breaths Mako took before speaking.

“I knew in a way, when I was little, back before mom and dad got killed,” Mako said. “There was always something there, fundamentally and while I wouldn’t have a name for it or really understand it for the longest time, it was there.”

“After, well, after, it wasn’t really safe to be anything really. I couldn’t be a kid, I couldn’t be smart, I couldn’t be too strong or too weak and it would have been a death sentence to be anything but straight on the streets. You know as well as I do what happened to kids who didn’t hide it,” Mako said, his tone extremely dark. Bolin looked over finally to see his brother glaring out the window.

“I told myself it wasn’t important and that I was imagining things that weren’t there when I though a boy was attractive,” Mako continued. “I was scared to be myself back then. After, with Toza and the pro-bending, I knew it could be something that could make or break a career and we didn’t have time for that. We needed to be successful at it. Then Korra and Asami came along and it was so easy to pretend my eyes didn’t drift towards the occasional nice-looking man while dating them.”  
“Don’t get me wrong,” Mako said. “I loved Korra and Asami, and I still do, they are my best friends, but with all my attention on them, there was no room for anyone else. Then General hotstuff came barging into battle and, at first, I really thought I was threatened by them being there. In a way I was, but not in the way I originally thought.”

“I thought I was threatened by the attention Korra and Asami were giving them, but really it was because I was backed into a corner with my sexuality and I didn’t want to be,” Mako explained. “I wasn’t ready to open that particular door. I slammed it back shut and it stayed that way for a very long time. The three years all of us were separated, I spent a lot of time around Iroh and Wu and with that, I let the door slowly creep open.”

“Then when you all came back, I got scared again and pulled away,” Mako said. “But Korra and Asami came out and I realized I wasn’t alone with it. I had people I could talk to about it, so I asked them, just to make sure. Opening up to them was a great weight off my shoulder and I got so used to being able to talk to them, that it didn’t register than I never told you. I just never thought about it, because I wasn’t dating anyone at the time and still slowly figuring things out.”

“I guess,” Mako said, pausing slightly, “I guess I was ultimately scared the stuff from our childhood stuck around, even with your acceptance of Korra and Asami. A lot of people can accept those things from strangers or even friend but not family. I guess it’s a bit different when the person in question is your brother.”

“It’s not,” Bolin said, feeling a lump form in his throat. “It’s not different, Mako. I love you, man. I just want you to be happy and if a man, or a non-binary person like Iroh, is the one to make you happy then that’s it. That’s all I want. I don’t know what I did to make you think otherwise.”

“Nothing, Bo,” Mako said, desperately. “It was my own hang-ups, fears and anxiety. I can’t really control it when thoughts of you hating me, or of you leaving me by myself crop up. Some of those nightmares, and thoughts don’t even have to do with my bisexuality, it’s just pure fear.”

Bolin ran that thought around in his head a bit but it still wasn’t connecting. “I don’t get it,” Bolin said. “I don’t think there was ever a moment in my life where I ever thought you would abandon me, but I guess I don’t need to get it. I just need to be aware of it.”

Mako turned his head towards him and stared. “Now when did my little brother get so smart?” Mako asked.

“You gave up on being the smart brother, when you met Korra and Asmai, so someone had to step up,” Bolin joked. It was worth it to get hit in the face with a pillow.

“You grew up to be a real pain in my ass, you know that Bolin?” Mako asked.

“You were the one who raised me that way,” Bolin laughed. He felt lighter after the talk the two just had. He didn’t realize how much Mako keeping something so intrinsic to himself, hurt him, hurt them both. He was glad it was all in the open now and had no issue slipping into sleep.

He was woken up later that morning by Opal and Korra sitting at the desk in the corner, giggling to themselves. The two were drafting Mako’s letter, which was odd as Mako was the one who was supposed to be writing it and was currently sound asleep.

Bolin tapped his brother awake. Mako groaned harshly. 

“No,” Mako said. “Go away.”

“Dude wake up,” Bolin said, shaking him.

“No solicitation,” Mako said.

“What?” Bolin asked, really confused as to what his brother meant by that. “Look if you want Korra and Opal to write your letter to Iroh without your input that’s fine but I figured I’d wake you up to check.”

“No,” Mako said, launching up. He nearly tipped over the edge of their sleep pallet as he reached to snatch the paper from the two women.

“Hey,” Opal said, “we were writing!”

“Yeah, my letter,” Mako said, uncrumpling the paper and reading it. “I can’t say this!”

“Why not?” Korra demanded.

“Because it sounds nothing like me!” Mako said. “I just wanted to tell you, your eyes, like honey, draw me in and stick with me all day? Opal what does that even mean? Their eyes aren’t even honey colored!”

“It’s romantic Mako,” Opal said, as if Mako was a dumb child. Bolin smirked slightly. While he missed the sweet innocent Opal he first met, he really loved the Opal he re-met three years later. Bolin blamed Kai for Opal’s new sassier attitude. 

“No, it’s dumb,” Mako replied. “And this, who’s idea was, your voice sends shivers down my spine and makes me dream of you saying my name? Korra can you keep your porno fantasies out of my letter? And no offense to Iroh meant but their voice sounds like a teenager’s, there’s nothing sexually appealing about it.”

“Hey, their voice is to, sexy, you just have no taste,” Korra said. “Right Asami?”

Bolin looked over from the chaos that was his girlfriend, brother and best friend to look at Asami. She had just woken up but still somehow looked a million Yuan. Bolin supposed actually being worth a million Yuan, though in all honesty Asami had way more money than that, helped.

“Their voice is okay, but let’s not get carried away here,” Asami said. “It sounds fine but Mako’s right, it’s not really the most attractive feature of Iroh. I was shocked to hear such a young sounding voice considering the way they looked.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mako asked, suddenly defensive.

“Betrayed by my own girlfriend,” Korra said, over him.

Asami stared at him blankly, pointedly ignoring her girlfriend’s dramatics. “Do you like their voice or not Mako?” Asami asked. “Make up your mind.”

“I love their voice!” Mako said. “But that doesn’t make it sexy, it just makes it theirs and I love that.”

“Opal write that down, Mako keep talking,” Korra said, pulling a new sheet of paper out.

“What, no!” Mako said blushing.

“Do you want the letter to be authentic or not, you really are playing hot and cold today, Mako,” Korra said. “Something tells me that won’t end well for you when you, if you have to talk to Iroh.”

Mako sighed. “You’re right,” he said. “I just don’t know where to start.”

“When did you start liking them?” Asami asked.

“Heh, you won’t like the answer,” Mako said, rubbing the back of his head.

“Go ahead,” Asami said, encouragingly. “I won’t bite. Just say what you would say to them.”

“I guess, no I know, I started liking them, ah, you,” Mako said, closing his eyes to better focus, “when we first met. It was shallow sure, particularly with Korra and Asami around at the time but you shook me to my foundations that day and I know I lashed out like an idiot but I really just didn’t know what to do with you. Then later we got to spend time together and I wanted your friendship, more than anything else but after seeing you so relaxed here, I guess I just figured it was worth it to try, but clearly things went wrong there.”

“Okay, I would be mad about you also crushing on Iroh while dating me but honestly we all agreed to let that whole mess go and I’m also guilty of that one, so instead can we just marvel at how similar our taste in potential partners are because Korra and I were drooling over the sexy General too. Too bad he swings your way and not ours, or I might have done something,” Asami said.

“Hey,” Korra shouted at the same time Mako buried his face in his hands.

“I hate all of you,” Mako said into his hands.

\----Iroh----

Iroh stood outside their sister’s door, hesitating. They knew they needed to clear the air with Ursa. That leaving their sister in the dark about the things that happened wasn’t a good idea. Their feelings would fester and the last thing they wanted was to lose their sister to this mess. Not even Mako was worth that.

They finally gave up and knocked. Even if they didn’t want to talk to Ursa, they still needed their clothes. If that was what they needed to tell themself, to get the door open, then so be it.

Ursa opened the door looking like a hot mess, though that wasn’t unusual for Iroh’s sister. She was a rough sleeper, but she looked particularly rough this morning. Ursa’s mouth was pulled into a frown as she stared at them. Iroh really should have spoken to her last night.

“Hey, can we talk?” Iroh asked, hesitantly. They knew their sister wasn’t always in the mood to talk about her feelings, particularly when confused.

Ursa didn’t move at first, and Iroh was worried for a second that their sister was mad at them. Then she launched herself into their arms.

“I’m not dating Mako,” she sobbed into their shoulder. “I’m not, and even if I was, I never would have wanted to hurt you so badly. Bolin set us up on a date and I agreed so he’d leave it alone. I didn’t know Mako was the one you were in love with. Please believe me. I don’t want to lose you over this. You’re my best friend.”

“Hey,” Iroh said, wrapping their arms tightly around their baby sister. Hearing her voice break on the last few words had Iroh’s heart breaking painfully. They never meant to make their sister so upset. “I know. I figured it out. It’s all okay. It was just a misunderstanding.”

Technically, Lu Ten told them, but considering how freaked out Ursa was by the room down the hall, Iroh figured it was best to keep that information to themself.

“You did?” Ursa asked, pulling away. Her eyes were puffy and Iroh wiped a tear from one. They dropped a kiss to the top of their sister’s head.

“Yeah, I did, and I’m sorry I made you worried and upset too,” Iroh said. “Never, and I mean never, think you need to give up your happiness for mine. You’re my best friend too, Ursa. I love you and I want you to be happy no matter what. Even if that means I’m unhappy.”

“I love you too, stupid,” Ursa said, punching Iroh harshly in the shoulder. “Which is why I could never be happy knowing something I was doing was causing you pain and making you unhappy. I was seriously contemplating breaking up with my actual boyfriend for you.”

Iroh rubbed their shoulder where their sister had hit them.

“I’m sorry, Ursa,” Iroh said. “No matter how upset I was at the idea of you dating Mako, I never would have wanted you to break up with him.”

“Stupid,” Ursa said, again, this time poking them harshly in the ribs. “I would have done it, broke up with them. I can heal from a break up, I can’t heal from losing you.”

Iroh smiled slightly. “Well, now that we’ve established our co-dependency stretches to breaking up with guys for our sibling’s wellbeing, are we good?” Iroh asked, hesitantly holding their arms out.

“Yeah,” Ursa said, pulling them into another hug. “We’re good. You’re still stupid though.”

“I know,” Iroh said with a smile, “but so are you, brat.”

They stayed like that for a moment, just coming to terms with everything that happened over the past day and calming down from their fight.

“Never invite these people to our house ever again,” Ursa said, pulling away. “I hate them.”

“Heh,” Iroh said, “I really thought they would behave. I make no promises about Mako though. I very much hope to be bringing him back with me at some point. He’s kind of one I want to stick around.”

“I can respect that, just leave his brother in Republic City,” Ursa said, releasing Iroh completely. “Now, for more important matters, what are you wearing today? I don’t want to twin for the festival and I already have a mask that matches the outfit I’m wearing.”

“A dress, so you have no pockets to put a firecracker in this time,” Iroh said, pulling out the dress they had in mind. It was strapless and had handwoven beaded detailing at the top. The skirt part was a very light satin with a shear covering. It was arguably their favorite dress, and perfect for the Fire Day Festival with its vibrant oranges and yellows. Iroh didn’t really plan on wearing a mask, though if they found one while at the festival, they might buy one.

“Are you ever going to let that go?” Ursa asked, even as she nodded in approval.

“Nope,” Iroh said, hip checking their sister into her wardrobe. “You almost blew my dick off. Why would I forgive you for that?”

“Ow, jerk,” Ursa said, regaining her balance from where she had fallen into the furniture piece.

Iroh and Ursa poked and prodded one another the either time the two got dressed but eventually they were standing side by side in Ursa’s floor length mirror.

“How does the Fire Nation handle such hot heirs?” Ursa asked. “We should be criminal. Lock us up in the Boil Rock, this country isn’t safe with us around.”

Iroh laughed, before stealing Ursa’s lip-gloss.

Iroh and Ursa paused and turned to one another as they heard a lot of shuffling making its way down the hall towards their room. The loud movements made their way from the room Korra, Asami and Opal were staying in, thought from the sounds of it there were more than three people heading their way.

Iroh could hear Korra whisper, "Stop, you're going to wake someone up," before the sound of someone hitting a wall was heard.

"Ow," Opal said.

"Quiet," Asami said, "why did all of us come anyway. Mako just drop the note and leave."

Iroh stared at the door for a moment before deciding to jump into the fire and opening the bedroom door.

"What are you guys doing?" Iroh asked. Ursa poked her head out of the room behind them.

Korra and her friends jumped and turned to look at them.

"Nothing," they all said, Mako shoving something behind his back.

"Right," Iroh said, squinting at them. "I don't believe that for a second."

“What are you planning now?” Ursa asked. Her tone was more aggressive then Iroh had ever heard it. Iroh hadn’t realized just how much their sister very much didn’t like these people. Personally, even with all the drama they caused, Iroh still found them amusing enough. “I thought I told you all to stop planning and messing with our love lives, you aren’t good at it.”

The six of them stood in the hallway awkwardly. The words, Won't know till ask, appeared in Iroh’s vision again.

"Mako, can I talk to you for a moment?" Iroh asked, surprising everyone, including Ursa.

“You sure, Iroh?” Ursa asked. Iroh nodded, walking out of the room towards Mako.

Mako's eyes went wide but he nodded. He handed something off to his brother as he passed him and followed Iroh as they made their way back to Lu Ten's room.

Iroh shut the door behind them, stalling now that they were alone in a room with Mako.

"I am," Iroh said before sighing and shaking their head. They moved over to the bed to sit down, gesturing for Mako to join them.

"I am very confused and very hurt by a lot of things and I think we need to talk about what's going on here, because I really don't think I can take anymore," Iroh said, looking at Mako through their bangs.

"I'm sorry," Mako replied. "I'm kind of bad with expressing things like my feelings and picking up dating cues. I really like you, just so that's clear."

Iroh nodded before rubbing their hands over their face and through their hair, nervously.

"I think I'm, well not in love with you, I don't know you well enough to say that really but I'm not far off from it," Iroh explained. "Falling in love with you would be a very easy thing for me to do. I just, I want to know what happened yesterday and the day before, from you. Not Korra or Asami. Not my sister. Not Lu Ten. You."

Mako opened his mouth to answer before closing it and looking at Iroh in confusion. "Lu Ten?" He asked.

"Tell you later, it was weird," Iroh said, waving off the question.

"Right," Mako said, still looking confused. "I grew up on the streets. It’s not a secret really but it comes with a lot of tendencies, for lack of a word. A lot of the things I do come from that fact. Wasting food makes me upset, particularly luxury food like ice cream because it used to be such a coveted thing. It was hard enough to find non-rotting fruit. Ice cream? Keep dreaming. So, you saying you'd get me another flavor, I know I over reacted but it just, isn't a thing I'm used to, even now. I was fine with it and I get you felt bad that I was going to eat something I didn't want but I would have felt better eating the pistachio ice cream and not letting it waste then eating a mint ice cream while the pistachio was trashed. You wouldn't let me do that and that irritated me, then it got wasted anyway which really irritated me."

Iroh closed their eyes. "I didn't mean to ignore what you wanted. I just felt so bad after yesterday's cliff diving fail and messing up again with you. I didn't want you to think I didn't care but I guess I did that by not listening," Iroh said.

“I know you care, Iroh,” Mako said. “I could see it in the gestures, even if they were doomed ones. Just, don’t talk over me in the future, okay? And I’ll try not to blow up over small details and to actually explain myself instead of hiding.”

“This is going to be very hard isn’t it?” Iroh asked, looking down at their hands. They were surprised when Mako reached over to cover their hands.

“My dad used to tell me it’s not hard work if it’s worth it,” Mako said. “It’s one of the few things I distinctly remember my parents saying, and it’s because he said it so often.”

“Wise man,” Iroh said, turning their hands over to link their fingers with Mako’s. “So, not so hard work?”

“Not so hard work, enjoyable work,” Mako replied.

Iroh smiled and noticed Mako’s eyes drop to their lips.

“Can I, uh?” Mako trailed off.

“Yeah, you can, uh,” Iroh joked.

Mako huffed a slight laugh before closing the distance. His lips were chapped. Which probably wasn’t the most romantic description given to a kiss but Iroh kind of liked the roughness it gave the kiss.

Mako pulled back slightly. “You taste like berries,” Mako said, before kissing them again, and then again.

“It’s the lip gloss,” Iroh replied when given the chance. “You should try it sometime. Your lips are really chapped.”

“Oh,” Mako said, pulling back. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” Iroh said, catching him before he could pull back all together. “It’s fine, I kind of like it but it’s not really healthy.”

Mako nodded before kissing them again.

Iroh slid their hand around the back of Mako’s neck and played with the short strands of hair there.

Mako slid his own hands around Iroh’s waist.

“Can I just say,” Mako said, pulling back from the last kiss he gave Iroh, “that this dress is doing things to me.”

“Oh yeah?” Iroh said. They were slightly worried for a moment. It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to fetishize Iroh’s gender identity and they hoped that wasn’t why Mako suddenly took interest in them, when before he didn’t.

“Yeah,” Mako said, rubbing the fabrics between his thumb and pointer finger. “You look really nice today and the way this dress hugs your waistline is killing me slowly.”

“But it’s not because I’m wearing a dress? Just that I look nice?” Iroh questioned desperately.

“Huh? Yeah, it’s just because you look nice,” Mako said in confusion. 

“So, you didn’t just see me in a skirt that first day and decide you wanted to date me, because of that?” Iroh asked. Fear was suddenly gripping them. The idea had yet to cross their mind but now that it had, it wasn’t going away.

“I liked it, and I like this, but I’d like you in anything,” Mako said. “It wasn’t the skirt that opened my eyes to my feelings, it was seeing you completely relaxed and comfortable for the first time, that made me realize I liked you more than originally thought. I kind of just put you in a place of unattainable and left you there. Your friendship was good enough but seeing you here made me more comfortable around you. Comfortable enough to give this a try.”

Iroh looked Mako in the eye and realized Mako had finally picked up on why Iroh was questioning him. There was nothing but genuineness in Mako’s eyes. He meant what he said.

Iroh was slightly flattered to know Mako thought so much of them, as to be nervous to ask them out, even if it did lead to a mountain of misunderstandings.

Iroh pulled Mako into one last kiss, before breaking apart and pulling Mako to his feet.

Iroh laughed slightly at the lip gloss smeared over Mako’s mouth and tried to wipe it off the best they could. They used the mirror on the back of Lu Ten’s wardrobe to fix their own smeared lip gloss.

“Come on, we have a festival to get to,” Iroh said, turning around to find Mako staring at them softly.

“Fine, fine,” Mako said, wrapping himself around Iroh, “though I’d rather stay in this room with you for the day.”

Iroh paused and looked over Mako. Iroh liked Mako a lot but they didn’t think having sex this soon would end well.

“Ah,” Mako said, finally picking up on what he just said, “not like that, I mean one day like that, but not this day like that. I’m going to stop talking forever now.”

Iroh laughed. “Okay, one day but not this day then,” they joked. “I look forward to it.”

Mako sighed and shook his head at himself. 

“Let’s just go to the festival then,” Mako said. “Before I say something else stupid.”

Iroh gestured Mako out before themself. They felt something cold wash over them and looked up into the room. Lu Ten was sitting on his desk smiling at them. When Lu Ten realized he had Iroh’s attention, he winked and shooed them from the room before dissipating himself.

Iroh resigned themself to having a guardian ancestral sprit, until Lu Ten could reincarnate upon the death of his cousins. Lu Ten was free to go wherever there was family, so not even leaving for Republic City could discourage him from following. As much as Iroh wanted Lu Ten to leave him alone, he’d bare the obnoxiously caring spirit forever, if it meant his grandfather lived a long, long life.

Iroh shook themself and shut the door on Lu Ten’s voyeurism.

They grabbed Mako’s hand to drag him down stairs, nearly stumbling over the group of people congregated at the bottom of the steps.

\----Korra----

Korra could admit that the longer Mako and Iroh spent locked in Prince Lu Ten's, the more nervous she got.

"Surely, if they weren't talking seriously, they'd be done by now? You don’t think they are fighting do you?" Korra finally asked into the silence that had gripped the group the second Mako was pulled into the room with Iroh. They had taken up residence at the bottom of the steps leading from the second floor to the first. Lord Zuko already gave the group odd looks for their location, even if he never said anything.

"It's a good sign," Asami said, hopefully. "It means they are actually talking things through."

"Or maybe they are having hate sex," Ursa said, plopping down on the steps next to Opal.

Korra and her friends stared at her in surprise.

"Aren't you mad at us?" Bolin asked.

"Yeah," Ursa said, "but Iroh and I made up this morning, so while you shouldn't consider yourself forgiven, I've decided not to kill you all when you least expected it. I am named after the woman who killed Fire Lord Azulon after all, it would be in your best interest to not forget that."

"Noted," Korra said. Usually threats like that rolled off her no problem, but something in Ursa's eyes said this wasn't a threat to shrug off. The Princess had the power to make people disappear and she wasn’t afraid to use it.

"It's the Fire Day Festival," Ursa said, changing the subject. "A celebration of the eternal flame. We get to shoot off fireworks tonight but there's a festival in town we can go to during the day whenever Iroh and Mako stop sucking face, or dancing the sideways tango, whatever it is they are taking so long with."

They waited a while, long enough that Korra wondered if Iroh and Mako did stop to have sex. It seemed unlikely, Korra knew Mako, they hadn't had sex with each other until a month before they broke up. Granted that was both of their first times having sex, apparently Mako and Asami never crossed that line together.

Iroh also didn't seem the type to jump straight to bed, so it had to be something else.

They eventually showed back up. They were smiling and holding hands. Mako looked extremely sheepish as the two joined them, but neither looked particularly sex rumpled.

Korra shook her head. It really wasn't her business. She glared at Ursa for putting the idea in her head.

"You two love birds done making your nest, so we can go to the festival?" Ursa said.

"You know, Iroh promised the festival would be a weeklong thing but it’s been kind of lack luster," Korra said, as the group wandered off towards the city center.

"We've been keeping you away from it," Iroh admitted.

"What? Why?" Bolin asked.

"That's why," Ursa said, pointing to the scene in front of them.

Korra's eyes went wide. She had never seen so many scantily clad people in her life. There were probably three shirts total in the crowd.

Kids were running around, throwing some type of small explosive at each other's feet, while adults, even as early in the morning as it was, nursed drinks in their hands.

All the city fountains, including some hidden in the ground where Korra had missed them, were on and shooting water high into the sky.

A group of teenagers were pushing each other into the ground fountain in the hopes of revealing skin under the pressure of the water. 

It was loud and obnoxious and lively.

Three different street musicians could be heard from their spot outside the city and masks covered the faces of every person who stumbled by.

More spices then Korra had ever come across filled the air with a heavy, hot and peppery aromas. Fried meat of every kind could be heard sizzling from every vendor.

Shops and vendors opened along the streets, selling trinkets and souvenirs.

"Where was all this stuff before now?" Opal asked. She sounded just as amazed as Korra felt.

"At people's homes," Iroh answered. "Our home has been well behaved due to guests but usually we shoot fireworks every night and Ursa and I sneak out to party after party. We just didn't want any of you getting overwhelmed before the actual holiday."

Korra pouted. She kind of wished they had dragged them to a party. As far as house parties went, Korra had never been to one.

She shrugged to herself and moved on, dragging Asami off into the chaos and leaving the others behind.

"Oh," Korra said, stopping in front of a street vendor. "That looks good."

"Pepper poppers," Iroh said, startling Korra as they came up behind her. "My granddad's favorite. They are chile peppers covered in breading and fried."

"Can I get a bag of Fire Flakes, please?" they asked, leaning around Korra.

"Of course, always happy to serve the Prince," the vendor said, handing over a steaming bag.

The food inside looked hot. It was so saturated in spices it had turned a reddish-orange color.

Iroh tossed a handful into their mouth. "Yummy," he said, dropping way too many Yuans on the vendor's counter. "Pepper poppers for Korra and directions to the nearest stand with chile mangos, please."

The vendor easily supplied the requests.

"He called you Prince," Korra noted. "Does that not bother you?"

Iroh shrugged. "There isn't really a unisex variation other than heir to the throne, which is a mouthful. So long as they respect my pronouns, titles like Prince don't really bother me," Iroh explained. "One day I’ll have a unisex title like Fire Lord, until then, it’s not a big deal. Now, if you'll excuse us, mangos are calling my name."

Korra watched them leave. Mako hadn't said a word the entire time he had been standing there, too focused on Iroh.

"Do you ever miss it?" Korra said. "Being the sole focus of someone like that?"

"A bit," Asami admitted. "It was one if the reasons I got so mad when Mako started giving you attention, even before I started suspecting something there. It's addictive, the way Mako focuses in on you, but it leads to a lot of other problems and I don't miss those. Mako's grown out of most of them. He stands his ground a bit better now and he's gotten better at navigating his emotions. I like what we have better."

"Yeah," Korra said, smiling. "I do too."

The two of them made their way around the festival, getting dragged into this game and that meal. They danced and splashed about in the fountains like kids. Asami joined a group of teens drawing on the pavement with sidewalk chalk and drew a rather impressive Republic City skyline.

Asami bought a new dress, one that left a lot of her back exposed and gained Korra's approval for said reason.

They ran back into Bolin and Opal at a magic show before losing them again during a small parade. Korra wasn't sure if parade was the right term. There we no floats but there was a giant dragon puppet and a bunch of people with flower crowns and candy wandering vaguely around the city.

They didn't catch up to Ursa again until the group reconvened outside the city going towards the beach house.

"Okay," Korra said, "if those house parties were anywhere near as wild as this, I forgive you for protecting us. That was a lot."

"Told you, and we haven't even lit the fireworks yet!" Ursa said. She had some fruity alcoholic beverage in hand, and seemed way more relaxed then she was this morning.

They reached the house around sunset, to find Lord Zuko already sitting out on the beach with a box of fireworks next to him.

Iroh ran over an snatched up a large tube. Korra’s eyes went wide as they went to light it. She didn’t know much about fireworks but surely lighting one that close to your person wasn’t the right way to do it.

The firework didn’t explode like she thought it would. Instead a small flare like firework shout out the end of it, directly towards Ursa.

“Dick!” Ursa yelled, ducking the firework. She ran over and grabbed one up herself, but unlike Iroh she had to wait for her grandfather to stop laughing long enough to light her firework for her.

Their parents came out of the house at the noise but Fire Lord Izumi merely shook her head and continued on as if her kids weren’t trying to kill each other with fireworks.

“Spark Candles,” Lord Zuko said, handing one to Korra. “They are like mini fireworks you can shoot yourself. Each one holds five to eight, always make sure it’s empty before putting it down and don’t point it at people!”

He said this last part toward his grandchildren. Iroh had just shot Ursa in the leg with one and now she was trying to beat them over the head with her empty tube.

Korra laughed as Iroh tried to get their sister off their back and failed.

She looked down at the candle Lord Zuko handed her and lit it. The first few were fun, though Fire Lord Izumi kept telling her to point it away from the tree. Korra assumed this was the tree Iroh nearly burned down.

There was a loud popping noise next to her ear and Korra screamed slightly, dropping the candle on the ground, as it blew up in her face.

The candle continued letting out three more blasts in random directions with no one holding it anymore, while Korra still reeled form the firework going off so close to her.

“Are you okay?” Asami said, grabbing her shoulder.

“I think so,” Korra said. “It just startled me, and now my ear is ringing.”

“It must have been a dud,” Iroh said. “Sadly, that happens. You want Ursa to take a look at it or are you good to handle it yourself?”

“I think I’ve got it,” Korra said, holding a handful of water to her ear and healing herself.

The ringing stopped and she dropped the water. “Good as new,” Korra said. “I want to try again.”

They spend the rest of the sunset, playing around with the smaller fireworks. The Spark Candles were the ones everyone played with the most, despite Fire Lord Izumi and her father’s best efforts to make them stop aiming them at each other.

They did eventually stop when Mako got knocked over, after being hit in the head with one of the flares. Korra ended up healing that wound too.

They then found the Pop Rocks, the tiny fireworks the kids were playing with at the festival. 

They weren’t as fun and had to be used on the paved patios, as they wouldn’t spark against the sand. The only amusing thing about them was when Pabu, tired of Bolin and Mako throwing the fireworks at his feet, took a box of them and dumped the whole box on the ground at their feet instead. Watching Bolin and Mako bounce around trying to avoid the stinging burns of the tiny fireworks on their bare feet, was certainly the funniest moment of the night. 

Night eventually fell and the music from the festival had now gotten so loud you could hear it all the way on the beach. Izumi and Bumi were dancing in the sand to the music while Ursa sat with her great aunts near the snack table.

Iroh wrapped their arms around Mako and buried their face in Mako’s neck. “Fireworks,” they said, before pulling back and dragging the group where they could better see the show.

Lord Zuko was down on the beach setting up the fireworks. His sister soon joined him to help and before Korra knew it, the fireworks were streaking through the sky.  
Korra’s jaw dropped slightly.

She had heard about Fire Nation fireworks and how they weren’t like normal fireworks that shot up into the sky as a shower of sparks but that they could be used to draw in the sky. The dragon currently fading from her vision was unexpected but amazing.

There were fountain fireworks and whistling ones. There was one set of fireworks that Princess Azula lit that seemed to only make loud popping noises.

“My family likes those because they are annoying and it keeps people away from here,” Iroh said. “We shoot one off every now and again to startle whatever group is trying to get too close to our property.”

The next firework they lit had everyone ducking for cover at it was entirely to close to everyone for what it did. Lord Zuko even had to take control of the firework with bending to get it to stop. The firework was spiraling in all directions, curving this way and that with shot after shot. They were admittedly pretty, if only they had been lit a bit further from the group.

The next sets of fireworks were pretty and not dangerous and Korra’s pyro heart was a bit in love with the entire practice.

Then another firework turned out to be a dud. Nothing happened and the group froze, until Bumi moved out to check it. In hindsight, they probably should have sent one of the firebenders, as when Bumi got close enough to the tube they had been launching the fireworks from, the dud decided to go off, a foot from the ground and right next to Bumi.

Bumi jumped back and fell. He scrambled away from the firework that was still popping in the tube. They waited until it was finished before Ursa doused it with water.  
The rest of the firework show went off without a hitch, though Lord Zuko and his sister kept arguing about the order the show should go in.

Korra turned to her friends. Bolin and Opal were curled together on a lounge chair, Opal’s head resting on his shoulder. Mako was in his own little world with Iroh. The two had stopped paying attention to the fireworks a while ago and were instead trading stories to get to know one another better and the occasional kiss. Korra wondered for a moment if Iroh even knew their dad almost got himself blown up.

She didn’t think they did, as they rubbed their thumb over Mako’s eyebrow.

“Their goo-goo eyes are a bit over the top, no?” Asmai asked, leaning into Korra.

“Yeah, but Mako’s always been like that. It’s good he’s found someone who makes them back at him,” Korra said.

Asami laughed and pulled Korra into her side.

“I’m glad we came here,” Asami said, looking up at the sky as more fireworks filled the air. “Even if we did almost bring down the Fire Nation monarchy. This is nice.”

“Yeah, it is,” Korra said. She turned to her girlfriend and dropped a light kiss on her nose. “I think that was the best firework of the night.”

“What?’ Asmai asked. “It was just another noise maker.”

“No,” Korra said, staring at her girlfriend blankly. “Kissing you, never mind it’s not romantic anymore.”

Asami laughed again. “That’s my favorite firework too then.”

Korra stopped pouting as Asami pulled her into a deeper kiss.


	7. Day 7: Return to Republic City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra finally gets her answers, Bolin apologizes to Ursa and Mako and Iroh...kiss a lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Bullying mentioned

\----Korra----

“Hey,” Asami called, “do you have any clue where that one bathing suit with the back, lace detailing ended up?”

Korra startled and hit her head. She was currently under the bed, trying to get a tank top that had fallen under there two days ago. She regretted that she never picked it back up, as now it was way under the bed out of arm’s reach from all sides. “Uh, well it’s not under here?” Korra said.

“How did our room even get this bad?” Opal said. “Also why do things fit when you pack for a trip but suddenly don’t when you pack to leave?”

“You did buy a few things,” Asami pointed out.

“But enough to make my suitcase mad at me?” Opal asked. She groaned as a popping noise rang through the room. “Not again.”

Korra finally pulled herself out from under the bed, tank top firmly in hand. 

Opal was currently sitting on her suitcase trying to force the button snaps of the bag closed. Every time one was snapped in place the other would pop open, due to the pressure of the clothes inside.

Opal collapsed back on her cot with an exaggerated huff. “Bolin,” she called loudly.

Korra wasn’t too sure Bolin would be able to hear them from the room he was staying in.

Sure enough, Korra was right, as Pabu came into the room and ran around in a circle before leaving again. He returned several minutes later with a disgruntled Bolin.

“Pabu said you needed me?” Bolin asked, his hair sticking up in odd places, indicating the fire ferret just woke him up.

“I can’t get my bag shut,” Opal said, “can you get it?”

Korra and Asami traded a look before laughing to themselves, as Opal sat back and watched her boyfriend struggled instead of her. Korra had to wonder why Opal didn’t ask her to try. Korra probably could have gotten it shut.

Looking at her watching Bolin, she figured it was a couple thing between them, and left it alone.

“You almost done Asami?” Korra asked, turning away from Bolin’s struggles.

“Almost,” Asami said, wandering into the on-suite bathroom. There were a few rustling noises before she came back with her toiletry bag, her missing swimsuit, and another of Korra’s tank tops. “It fell behind the towel rack, as did this.”

Asami put the last few items, including Korra’s tank top, into her suitcase. She struggled for a moment in getting her suitcases shut before proclaiming, “Done!”

“Great,” Korra said, lifting one up on her shoulder. “I’ll help you take them down stairs and then I’m stalking Lord Zuko so he can’t run off before I get my answers. If we suffered this vacation for no reason, I’m going to go Avatar State on the cities and call it a day.”

“I think that might make things worse,” Asami pointed out. Korra knew she was right but it was still a compelling idea.

“Hey,” Bolin called, having finally shut Opal’s suitcase for good, “Have any of you seen Mako? He wasn’t there when I woke up.”

“Maybe he’s with Iroh?” Opal suggested.

“They were the last ones to leave the patio area,” Asami pointed out.

“Do you think they had sex?” Korra asked.

“Invasive question,” Asami told her. Korra rolled her eyes.

“Mako could care less about invasive questions coming from me,” Korra said. “He’s used to them.”

She left the room after that, Asami following behind. It took two trips to get Asami and Korra’s stuff down to the ground floor. They also grabbed Opal’s for her, as she walked down the hall to help Bolin.

“Suitcases to the living room,” Fire Lord Izumi said walking past them. “We are all taking Iroh’s airship back to the capital, and then you all will leave for Republic City, so don’t worry about where in the living room.”

“Okay, thanks, your highne-, ah thanks,” Korra said, stumbling over her words as Fire Lord Izumi raised a brow.

With the Fire Lord gone, and Korra feeling slightly embarrassed by the exchange, her and Asami took their suitcases into the living room.

There weren’t any suitcases in the room yet, but Korra wasn’t going to ignore the Fire Lord.

There was something more interesting in the room though. Apparently, Mako and Iroh had come inside after the festivities and fell asleep together on the sofa.

Mako was curled up into Iroh’s side and their hands were loosely tangled together as if they had been holding hands when they fell asleep.

Korra debated waking them up. They looked cute like that but she also knew Mako would be embarrassed if someone else found him. Besides, Iroh’s dress was riding up over their underwear and she knew they wouldn’t want people to see that. Mako’s shirt was also rucked up all the way to his armpits for some reason.

Korra tapped Mako on the shoulder until his eyes opened. They were bleary at first, not seeming to know where he was. They cleared up really fast when he rolled over, not aware he was on a sofa, and fell on the floor.

The movement woke Iroh, who looked down at Mako in question.

“Sorry,” Korra said, laughing slightly at Mako’s misfortune. “Fire Lord Izumi told us to put all suitcases in here. I figured I’d wake you two up, so you wouldn’t be caught unaware later. Also, Iroh, you might want to fix your dress.”

Iroh looked down and blushed slightly. Sleep had done a number on Iroh’s dress. It was strapless, which had it nearly turned around backwards, but it was also barely covering to midthigh in the front, never mind the back which looked to be pinned around the butt area under them, exposing a bit of their underwear. Korra knew wardrobe malfunctions, even though she didn’t really wear dresses like that and felt pity for Iroh.

“Thank you,” Iroh said, pulling their skirt back down to the knee length it was supposed to be and turning it the right direction.

“Yeah, thanks,” Mako said, pulling himself up and his top down. “Would have been awkward to have been caught like that by Bolin or spirits forbid, Iroh’s parents.

Iroh winced slightly. “Yeah, thanks for that too,” they added. 

The rest of Korra’s comment must have registered as Mako laid back down and groaned. “I don’t want to go wrestling with packing,” Mako said.

“I can help you,” Iroh said, standing from the sofa.

“Don’t you need to pack, yourself?” Asami asked.

“No, that’s what the servants do,” Iroh said.

Korra, Mako and, even Asami, stared at them a moment.

“I’m not touching that statement,” Mako said, standing. “Let’s go pack.”

Mako made his way from the room, Iroh’s hand held tightly in his own as he dragged them behind him.

“Something tells me their relationship is going to be both cute and odd in equal measure,” Korra said.

“It’s Mako, of course it will be,” Asami replied.

They made their way to the kitchen, where everyone seemed to be gathering. The small room already contained nearly the entire Fire Nation royal family, minus Iroh who was upstairs with Mako.

Fire Lord Izumi was at the kitchen counter with Bumi again, as they playfully argued over the pancake mix.

Korra sat down next to Lord Zuko.

He glanced in her direction. “Good morning, Korra, did you need something?” he asked.

“Answers to my question,” Korra replied.

“Very well, go ahead, I’ve kept you waiting long enough I’m sure,” he replied.

“So, there were these two villages, Du Village, now Duadi City and Xia village, now Xia City, do you know anything about what Avatar Roku did to make these cities so mad at him or each other?” Korra asked.

“I can’t say that I do,” he said. Korra deflated before he continued. “Do you know when he met these people? If it was at the time when he was still talking to Fire Lord Sozin, it may be mentioned in my great-grandfather’s journals.”

“I think they said the war started in 40 something BG?” Korra said.

“Then it may be mentioned, I don’t think they had their falling out until 25BG,” Lord Zuko said. “We may be able to find our answer in the Dragon Catacombs when we get to the capital.”

“Dragon Catacombs?” Korra asked. “That doesn’t sound too good.”

“It’s not, but it’s where the information can be found,” Lord Zuko said. “It’s enough to turn your stomach getting to the information but if it can help you, it’s worth a look.”

Their conversation was cut off by the kitchen becoming more crowded with the addition of Opal and Bolin.

Korra kept the old man in her line of sight the entire time, they were waiting to leave.

With everyone packed and ready to leave they made the slight trek to the family’s car. Bumi drove their suitcases to the airport, but the rest of them had to walk all the way to the airstrip they had first arrived at.

The only ones not coming with them were Princess Azula and her wife, who were apparently now living on the island.

Lord Zuko was having an animated discussion with his daughter about baby dragons. Ursa seemed to be avoiding talking to anyone, while Iroh was talking Mako’s ear off.

Mako wasn’t one for idle chit chat so the fact that he was actually fully listening to what Iroh was saying surprised Korra. Iroh said something and Mako laughed.  
The airship was already up and running when they got to it, so it was as simple as boarding it and taking off.

“I’ve never been to the Fire Nation capital before,” Korra said.

“It’s in a volcano because the Fire Nation has no self-preservation skills,” Iroh joked.

“It’s dormant,” Fire Lord Izumi stated, “but that hasn’t stopped volcanos in the past.”

“Great, that’s reassuring,” Korra said.

“It hasn’t gone off in over 9000 years, I think we are fine at this point,” Lord Zuko said.

“Harmonic Convergence only happens every 10,000 years,” Korra pointed out.

Lord Zuko paused. “If the volcano goes off, I’m not fighting it,” he said.

“Aw, you don’t want to take after Avatar Roku?” Ursa joked.

“Dying fighting a volcano is in fact not on my preferred ways to die list,” he replied.

“You have a list?” Iroh asked. Their voice came out confused.

Korra could admit that threw her off slightly too.

“If you knew me as a teenager, you would never have asked that question,” Lord Zuko said. “I once yelled at the sky to strike me with lightning.”

“Oh,” Iroh said. “So, struck by lightning is on your list?”

“Agni, no,” he replied. “Being stuck by lightning is painful, why would I want to die like that?”

“You know what, granddad, never mind,” Iroh said, turning their attention to Mako.

“Was it something I said?” he asked, turning to his daughter.

Fire Lord Izumi didn’t respond.

The royal family apparently had their own landing strip in the palace grounds, Lord Zuko wasn’t given a say according to Iroh.

Lord Zuko wasted no time dragging Korra and her friends down into the Dragon Catacombs.

“Oh, no,” Mako said when they first walked in.

That didn’t even begin to cover it. The tunnel was structurally supported by dragon ribs, and skulls were hanging on the walls like perverse trophies.

“Why?” Asami asked.

“Fire Lord Sozin created a form of firebending known as imperial firebending,” Lord Zuko explained. “It is a form driven by rage and anger over energy and breath control. When Fire Lord Azulon took the throne, he decided to hunt down the dragons and kill them, so as to prevent anyone from learning the proper way to firebend. My Uncle was said to have killed the last one, but in reality, he learned the truth to firebending and left them alive. This is the results of the hunts though. All information the royal family wanted kept hidden, ended up here.”

“That’s horrible,” Opal said, clinging to Bolin’s arm. Bolin was clinging back and leaning as far away from the dragon bones as he could get. Pabu had buried himself in Bolin’s shirt.

“It is,” Lord Zuko said, “which is why my family now strives to assist with the dragon population revival as best we can. Luckily inbreeding isn’t a problem with the species.”

They reached the end of the hallway and Lord Zuko used firebending to open the door.

Inside where shelves and shelves of books and artifacts hidden away from the rest of the world.

The shelves looked emptier then intended though.

“My friends and I spent a lot of time down here determining what should and should not be shared with the public,” Lord Zuko said. “Private journals were left down here, and some less than savory practices were also left hidden, in the hopes no one would get any ideas from them.”

“Sozin’s journals are over here, and if I remember correctly, they are in order and this one was a description of their first fight, so your answered should be somewhere in here,” he said, gesturing to a set of five scrolls.

It didn’t take long with reading the scrolls before Opal was calling them over.

“Here,” Opal said, reading off the page, “Lord Sozin says he had an unexpected visit from a very put out Avatar Roku and explains that apparently in his Avatar duties, Avatar Ruko had been called upon to settle a land dispute. Du village had existed for twenty years before Xia village, which was formed after an argument between Du village’s founder’s sons. The main dividing line of the territory was the founder’s home and a particular papaya tree. Lord Sozin talks about how hard trying to be poised could be, when your friend tells you he accidently lit the tree in question on fire, while trying to solve the issue of who owned it. He jokes, Avatar Roku’s solution was brilliant, as no one owns it now.”

Opal handed Korra the scroll so she could read over it.

“He goes on to explain a bit more about the political turmoil both before and after Avatar Ruko’s blunder, but the two villages remained at odd with each other over the divides of their villages and at odds with Roku for the papaya tree,” Opal explained.

“And they’re still mad about both land and a tree?” Iroh asked. “That’s weirdly dedicated. Generational anger over a tree, that’s crazy.” 

“So, the tree thing is a problem, but the land dispute is simple,” Asami said. “President Moon or you need to formally place a barrier to the two cities, straight down the middle of the founder’s home. They both want it? Well now they both get half. The tree well, maybe you can give both cities a papaya tree to plant in their main city parks and hope they accept the peace offering?”

“Yeah, and don’t accidently light anything else on fire,” Korra said. She continued looking over the page. Sometimes she was absolutely blown away by some of the dumber things she learned about her past lives.

All this, this headache of a political battle for President Moon, the countless hours of researcher, the vacation Iroh dragged them on, the drama of said vacation, the fact that they had to go snooping through a secret royal archive, for a papaya tree and a house.

Korra hated politics so much.

\----Bolin----

Bolin could admit that the Fire Nation Palace was a beautiful place, but he shouldn’t have been as surprised as he was to discover that the palace had a few dark secrets to it, like the Dragon Catacombs.

That place was creepy and Bolin was glad when they left it behind with the information they needed and at least the starting point of a plan. 

“The airship will leave in three hours so, you all can bum around here if you want,” Iroh said. They pointed to their left. “That way leads to the garden, don’t destroy it. The other way leads to the public archives, if you want to go see if there’s more information.”

“No,” Korra said, “I think we have what we need, thank you both for your help though.”

Lord Zuko nodded. “Always my pleasure to help the Avatar,” he said walking away.

“Does your family actually mean that or do they just say that?” Korra asked. “Sometimes I think you all just say it.”

“Both,” Iroh answered truthfully, “we genuinely stand by the Avatar as a family, considering your past life was our family, but also we just say it because what else would we say? No Avatar Korra we, the family that caused the hundred-year war and killed Avatar Roku, won’t help you at all. That’s not a good image, so it’s a combination of yes, we will help you because usually our ideals are one and the same but also, we won’t say no, least someone use that to hang us.”

“Coming from my granddad, though,” they clarified, “it’s always genuine.”

“And coming from you?” Korra asked. Bolin thought she sounded slightly sad about that answer.

“Questionable,” Iroh said. “Sometimes I want to shake you until common sense happens and tell you to think before you ask me something. Something off the cuff or unimportant to you, can have great repercussions for my nation and myself. Having to balance my mother’s no war rule with her always help the Avatar rule was what nearly got me in trouble with Raiko during the Water Tribe Civil War, but overall, I help you because I usually want to.”

“Heh,” Korra said, sheepishly, “I guess wasn’t thinking about who I was asking for help. You were just General Iroh, it slips my mind sometimes that you are also a, um, prince.”

“It happens more then you’d think. Riako used to do it all the time,” Iroh explained. “Just completely forget he was talking to the Prince of another nation and he would just say things he’d never say to a dignitary but might say to his military. It got him into a few tight spots with my mother, because of course I told on him.”

“Oh, I’ll try not to forget in the future then,” Korra said.

Iroh nodded at her before turning to Mako with a bright smile. “I want to show you something,” they said, dragging Bolin’s brother off somewhere.

Bolin smiled slightly himself when he saw the soft expression on Mako’s face. Finding out his brother was bisexual threw him for a bit of a loop but ultimately, he was just glad his brother wasn’t lonely anymore.

Iroh was good for him, even within just yesterday, Bolin could tell his brother was happier than Bolin had ever seen him.

“Let’s go see the gardens,” Opal said, tugging on Bolin’s arm. Bolin turned to see if Asami and Korra wished to join but the two women had already wandered off in a direction, Iroh definitely didn’t tell them they could go down.

“Sure,” Bolin said, following Opal.

The gardens were nice. There was a small poem at the entrance that turned out to be written by Lord Zuko’s mother. The entire garden appeared to be dedicated to her. There was a rather large pond off to the side that Opal dragged him towards. They sat under a tree and leaned against the bark. Well, Bolin leaned against the bark, Opal leaned against him.

Opal sighed as she cuddled closer into his side. “This is nice,” Opal said. “I wish we had more time for moments like these on this vacation, but I get why you wanted to set Mako up. He’s so much more vibrant with Iroh. I guess he was as lonely as you said.”

“Yeah,” Bolin said, “I hope this lasts for them because they both seem happy.”

Opal gasped and leaned forward. “Babies, oh Bolin they look so cute!” Opal squealed.

A mother turtle duck made her way across the pond with four littler turtle ducks following behind. The baby turtle ducks seemed happy that a human was nearby and quickly made their way over to Opal.

They climbed onto her lap but Opal’s smiled quickly faded into a frown. “Oh, no, I don’t have any food for you guys,” she said.

“Here,” Ursa said, dropping a bag in Opal’s lap and startling the couple. “Granddad, or well the whole family really, feeds them, so you can’t come by the pond without food or the turtle ducks will get mad.”

“Oh, so he was feeding turtle duck the other day, then,” Bolin said.

“He’s feeding the turtle-ducks every day,” Ursa said, rolling her eyes slightly, “there isn’t a single property we own that doesn’t have turtle ducks. There’s a reason the royal penthouse in Republic City is a penthouse and it’s so the roof could be made into a garden to house, you guess it, turtle ducks.”

“Why does he like turtle ducks so much?” Bolin asked.

“Well, they are cute for one thing but really they remind him of his mother,” Ursa said. She sat on a rock off to the side of the pond and caused small little waves to roll across the water. Bolin was surprised to see the small turtle ducks abandon their food to go bob along to the small waves Ursa made. They must find it fun and were used to her doing it.

“Hey, Ursa,” Bolin said. “I just wanted to apologize for what I did. I was so caught up in trying to make sure Mako was happy that I completely ignored the fact that you would have your own thoughts on the matter. I didn’t think to even ask if you were single and I hope you can forgive me for those mistakes. I really didn’t want to cause you distress.”

Ursa sighed. “You’re going to end up my brother in law, aren’t you?” she asked, sounding as if she dreaded nothing more. “Truthfully, I understand how sorry you are but I’m not really ready to forgive you for the damage you nearly cause. If it was just a news mistake, I would be over it by now but you almost destroyed my relationship with both my brother and my boyfriend and that I’m still mad about. Maybe by the time they get married this will be something to laugh at, but for now, I supposed we should be lucky nothing truly damaging happened.”

“And your relationship?” Opal asked. “Is that okay? Your boyfriend didn’t break up with you, did he?” 

“No, I called them as soon as I knew what was happening,” Ursa explained, “and managed to head off the news before it even reached Republic City. He laughed and joked that Mako could never steal a woman from him, but understood it was ultimately a news error. He did ask me why I was on a fake date with Mako in the first place. I didn’t realize you and my boyfriend knew each other but he said it sounded like something stupid Bolin would do, so I guess he does know you two.”

Bolin looked at him in confusion. “He knows us?” Bolin asked. “From where?”

Bolin and Mako didn’t have too many people they knew in Republic City that were of the favorable sort and if Ursa had fallen in with a member of the Triple Threat Triad, she would need to know, before she got hurt.

Unless she already knew and was planning on turning to a life of crime. Bolin narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion.

“He used to be a pro-bender,” she said, breaking Bolin’s thoughts of her as a gang leader. “He was on the White Falls Wolfbats team.”

“Those guys?” Bolin asked his eyes going wide. “They were the worst.”

Opal elbowed him in the side and Bolin realized Ursa was staring at him in discontent. Maybe telling a woman her boyfriend was the worst wasn’t a good idea.

“I mean, our teams had a pretty strong rivalry,” Bolin said. “But hey so long as it’s not Tahno, I guess the rest of the team was okay enough.”

Ursa was still staring him down and Bolin felt his stomach drop.

“You’re dating Tahno, aren’t you,” Bolin asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. He plays the trombone in an orchestral band now,” Ursa said.

“But I thought he was gay?” Bolin said.

“Why because he’s effeminate and androgynous?” Ursa asked. “You know your brother falls into that category too, even if he’s a bit less obvious about it.”

“Well, yes, but also because he was constantly flirting with Mako,” Bolin replied. He ignored the comment on his brother. He knew the difference between Mako being mistaken as a male or female by outside observers, came down to his hairstyle and his clothes, its why he dressed so aggressively masculine when they were younger.

“He’s not gay,” Ursa said. “He’s just also not straight.”

“Mako’s not going to be happy that Tahno has the potential to be his brother in law by marriage,” Bolin said.

“Shame,” Ursa said, not sounding regretful in the slightest. “That certainly adds to my list of reasons to marry him, though we haven’t been dating for nearly long enough for something like that, yet. Neither have Mako and Iroh, but I’m hopeful for my sibling. They’ve been really happy.”

“Yeah, little sibling truce?” Bolin said, offering his hand to Ursa.

She stared at it a moment before rolling her eyes and shaking it. “Little sibling truce, don’t hurt my big brother again,” she said, squeezing threateningly on his hand.  
Bolin shook his hand slightly as he pulled it back. He hadn’t been expecting such a strong grip from her.

Ursa stood and walked from the gardens leaving Opal and Bolin in silence.

The turtle ducks, no longer playing in the waves that disappeared as Ursa rounded the corner, resumed their begging at Opal for food. Luckily Ursa had left the bag for them.

They spent the remaining hours of their wait playing with the small creatures, though towards the end the two got distracted.

Which was how they were caught by Mako and Iroh making out against the tree.

“Look at you go baby brother,” Mako joked. “I know Opal’s an airbender but she still needs to breath.”

Bolin and Opal pulled away with a blush, avoiding each other’s eyes even though they had been dating for years now.

“That’s so mean Mako,” Iroh said with a laugh. “Korra was so nice when she caught us in a similar position this morning and now, you’re going to make fun of your brother. Cruel sir, you are very cruel.”

Mako laughed, and pulled Iroh into a kiss. “We were asleep, not making out like horny teenagers in the middle of a garden,” Mako replied.

Iroh shook their head before offering to help Opal and Bolin to their feet. It was only when he was standing that Bolin realized Iroh was wearing the same thing as Ursa. They were robes with a simple belt around the waist that laid down in the front over Iroh’s stomach.

“Is that not hot?” Bolin asked, gesturing to their outfit.

“No,” Iroh replied. “It is made of a light but sturdy fabric but it is rather cool on the inside.”

“Fire Nation clothing is weird,” Bolin said, shaking his head as they walked towards the airship.

“No, just designed for a hot climate,” Iroh corrected. “You either wear less clothing or you make it breathable.”

Bolin turned back to respond, when he saw his brother pull Iroh in closer and loop his arm around their waist. He whispered something into Iroh’s ear and Iroh’s attention was gone as a blush took over their face.

Opal laughed at his misfortune as Bolin pouted.

They made it onto the airship to find Korra and Asami already seated along with Ursa. Bolin had forgotten she was coming with them as well.

Iroh pulled a radio off the wall. “Ready for takeoff,” they said.

“Copy, General,” came the reply.

The group collapsed over the sofa. Korra and Asami were curled up on their own corner of the huge sofa, while Opal was leaning against Bolin’s side.

Iroh was stuck between their boyfriend and sister. Ursa had her feet planted firmly in Iroh’s lap while Mako had pulled Iroh firmly against himself. The new couple didn’t seem to want to separate for even a minute.

“Well, this has been very eventful, but I’m glad to be getting home,” Asami said.

“Right?” Korra said. “I’ve missed the action of the city, no offense to island life but it moves way too slow for me.”

“That’s the point of it,” Ursa replied, nose deep into a book she had pulled out.

“Usually, that’s the point of it,” Iroh joked. “You all certainly made it more interesting then it usually is.”

“Have I apologized enough for my friends yet,” Mako asked.

“No,” Iroh replied, laughing and dropping a kiss on Mako’s forehead.

“See what you guys did?” Mako said. “I’m never winning an argument ever now.”

“Hey,” Korra shot back. “I got you a boyfriend, didn’t I?”

Asami hit her in the side slightly and pointed to Iroh.

“Oh, uh my bad, is there something you prefer?” Korra asked, quickly.

“Boyfriend, significant other, Supreme Ruler of Mako’s heart. I don’t really care,” Iroh said. “Take your pick, I’m not too picky about terms like that. Honestly you could even go with girlfriend, though I’m not sure why you would.”

“You’re my girlfriend now?” Mako joked.

“The best girlfriend ever,” Iroh replied with a laugh, before getting serious again. “Like I said the other day though, there are some words that just aren’t unisex and it’s fine to go masculine, or even feminine with them for me. I prefer they/them pronouns but I wouldn’t ever get offended at he/him or even she/her pronouns, though again, not sure why someone would go out of their way to use feminine language. It’s always best practice to ask someone though, as I’m an example not a baseline. I don’t feel uncomfortable with those other terms as I identify as both genders and neither at the same time, but others might feel very uncomfortable. As far as unisex terms go like lover and partner, those are fine too but they are a bit intimate or professional sounding and I don’t really care too much for them.”

“Right,” Korra replied. “I’ll keep that in mind. Anyway, Mako you could be more grateful to me for getting you a Supreme Ruler for your heart.”

“Hey, I helped,” Asami said.

“You did and I love you for that,” Korra replied.

“Opal and I may have had it wrong at first but we helped too, eventually,” Bolin interjected.

“Don’t drag my name into this,” Opal said.

“You four did nothing,” Mako said. “Iroh and I figured everything out on our own, you all made things worse.”

“Hey, we helped write that letter,” Korra said.

“You mean the one Iroh never read because I talked to them instead? That letter?” Mako asked.

“Hey, let’s not fight over this,” Opal said. “The important thing is they are dating.”

“Yeah, but I helped them,” Korra said.

“So, did I,” Bolin called.

Bolin heard his girlfriend sigh as the ship launched into a long debate that carried them all the way to the city.

\----Mako----  
Mako’s last day in the Fire Nation had been interesting to say the least.

The night before, him and Iroh had stayed out on the patio trading childhood, and adulthood, stories. Mako told Iroh a lot more then he usually told people up front but he couldn’t help it, as every story got a reply from Iroh in a similar vein.

Mako learned that Iroh had been bullied a lot in school for being what their classmates defined as odd. Iroh struggled greatly through puberty, as everything people kept telling them to expect was slightly off, while Iroh was finding other things happening. Iroh at one point, had even been fully convinced they felt odd because they were actually female instead of male, but after a few months of presenting as a female, the discomfort still remained. They then learned the terms genderfluid and gender neutral and felt whole for the first time.

Mako in turn told Iroh about his struggles with his bisexuality, from having grown up on the streets where it was a dangerous thing to be. He surprisingly told Iroh a lot about his time on the streets, including some things about how terrifying raising Bolin had been. He hadn’t even talked to Korra or Asami about those things but with Iroh, the truth just rolled straight off Mako’s tongue and into the open air.

Then they traded war stories, as Iroh called them. Iroh’s were actual war stories, one even being horrifyingly enough about cannibals. Mako’s were just tales of his and his friend’s adventures over the years.

They even slipped into tales of past relationships, Mako delicately walking Iroh through the mess of a relationship between him, Korra and Asami, while Iroh told him of first kisses and heartbreak.

The stories dissolved into sleepy and sloppy kisses. Kisses that sent shivers down Mako’s spine and had him wanting to beg for more. Iroh’s lips were soft and when the kisses deepened, the inside of their mouth was very warm and inviting. Mako wanted to pull Iroh so closely at that point, that they couldn’t be separated. 

They eventually made their way inside as bugs kept biting them and flying around their faces and the heat so present in the day, had dropped to a deep and biting cold. The sea breeze didn’t help matters.

Iroh poured them both a drink and the two continued talking and kissing until they apparently fell asleep together. Mako told Iroh laying down wasn’t a good idea, but the other had insisted that they would be fine.

Korra found them that morning, though Mako could only be grateful it wasn’t one of their younger siblings or Iroh’s parents. That would have been horrifyingly embarrassing, particularly with their state of dress. It didn’t look very appropriate, even though sleep had been the only culprit.

Iroh offered to help Mako pack but truthfully, they just stood there distracting him. Iroh had questions and comments on everything Mako packed up, including an odd conversation between the two about preference over boxers or briefs. Iroh had apparently been surprised to learn Mako wore boxers. Mako wasn’t surprised in the least to know Iroh wore briefs, having seen them that morning when Iroh’s dress rode up in their sleep.

When Mako was finally finished packing, Iroh stole some of Mako’s clothing for the trip to the capital, as all of their clothes were already packed before they could get dress. The slightly too long tunic they took hung around their mid-thigh, even though on Mako it fell only slightly below his belt line. Mako hadn’t realized that he was actually taller than Iroh until then, but he was by about two or three inches. The outfit kept Mako distracted until Iroh changed into something more befitting a prince, then Mako’s clothes.

Watching Iroh move around in Mako’s clothes, which fit perfectly everywhere except for height, was more hypnotizing then the way skirts moved around their legs or the way their uniform stretched tightly across their back. Something about it, had Mako’s heart rate up.

Mako could admit he was a bit on the possessive side so that was probably the leading factor. He was grateful when Iroh finally changed, least Mako do something embarrassing over Iroh in his clothing.

After they had finally obtained the information, they had originally even come for, and left the Dragon Catacombs, Iroh had dragged Mako up to his suite. Not his bedroom, Iroh had an entire apartment to himself in the palace.

It was huge, with a living room, kitchen, dining space, and three bedrooms.

Iroh lead him into his own room and started digging through their closet, which was a lot larger than Mako thought it needed to be. Mako had gotten used to wealth around Wu, but things like this still got to him sometimes.

Iroh apparently also wasn’t shy, stripping down teasingly in front of Mako and redressing, twice in one day.

Mako had to wonder slightly, if what Iroh wanted to show him was their bedroom, but no that wasn’t actually Iroh’s plan. Once Iroh was fully dressed, Mako was dragged out into the living room where the two spent the rest of their waiting time.

This time their couch session had way less talking at a lot more kissing, and exploring, to it.

The kisses shared this time were dizzying with the lack of air. Mako didn’t hesitated to slip his hand into Iroh’s top and slide his hand along soft warm skin. Iroh would just have to redress a third time that day as Mako pushed the top part to the side to exposed shoulders and collarbones to kiss and lick across.

Mako was absolutely in love with how responsive Iroh was to even the smallest of things. Mako could put his hand on the small of their back and they would curve into him with the slightest of pressure. He accidently brushed across a nipple and had Iroh whimpering into his mouth. Iroh clearly had a stronger sense of touch then most people and Mako was very excited to explore it.

He was also very much in love with the way Iroh played with his hair. The soft petting followed by the occasional pull was enough to dive Mako crazy.

He didn’t want to pull away, even as the clock on Iroh’s wall chimed the hour they needed to be at the airstrip.

They made their way towards the airstrip, stopping in the garden to pick up Mako’s brother and Opal.

Mako couldn’t help teasing and picking at Bolin, even as Iroh admonished him for it. Mako knew he and Iroh had just been doing the same thing, but it was fun to tease and pick at his brother all the same.

When Iroh mentioned clothing in the Fire Nation either being less material or breathable fabrics, Mako pulled them in tightly, loving the feel of Iroh pressed against them, and whispered in their ear.

“I certainly prefer it when you wear less,” Mako said. “More surface to touch and kiss.”

He only realized that might come across creepier than romantic, after he said it but Iroh took it in stride.

Iroh popped him lightly in the shoulder as they blushed darkly.

“You make it very hard to take this slow,” Iroh replied.

“And why are we going slow again?” Mako asked.

“So, we don’t mess this up,” Iroh said. He looked Mako deeply in his eyes and Mako felt bared open. “I want this to last. I want it to last a life time. So, let’s take things slow and work through them carefully. There will, hopefully, be time for fast later.”

“Okay,” Mako whispered in agreement. He knew Iroh was right but the newness of their relationship had energy sparking under his skin. It was going to be a particularly trying honeymoon phase. “But please let me know if I make you uncomfortable okay? I don’t want to rush you but if something I said feels pressuring just know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Don’t worry,” Iroh said, grabbing his hand, “I will, so long as you do the same.”

The ride back to Republic City could have been more pleasurable. Mako was actually starting to get mad at his friends, as they kept insisting, they set Iroh and Mako up. Bolin in particular was irritating him, and Ursa who had given up the argument to just glare at everyone.

They never came to a consensus, which really just meant Mako’s friends were refusing to listen to him and going with what they wanted regardless.

“Don’t worry about them,” Iroh said as they disembarked. “They can be wrong all they like, it doesn’t stop us from knowing what happened.”

“I guess,” Mako said. “It’s still annoying.”

“It is,” Iroh agreed. They paused for a long time before speaking again. “Would you, ah, would you like to stay at my house for the last week of my vacation? I know you have to go back to work, but it would be nice to be able to see you and I do live closer to the precinct if I remember where you live accurately enough.”

Mako contemplated the answer. Staying a week with your new lover didn’t sound like taking it slow, but it also sounded perfect to Mako.

He agreed.

“Ursa’s staying too, but it should be fine,” Iroh said.

“Actually, I’m staying at the embassy,” Ursa said. “You have fun with your new partner and I’ll have fun with mine.”

“Who is your partner anyway?” Iroh asked.

“Him,” she said pointing down the airstrip.

“You’re dating Tahno?” Mako asked, his jaw dropping.

“Yes, and your brother is annoying, looks like we both just have to struggle,” Ursa said, walking away.

“But, he’s, she, but no,” Mako said, trying to explain why this was a problem.

“What’s wrong with him?” Iroh asked.

Mako looked over at Ursa and Tahno’s reunion. “I guess nothing,” Mako said, “just an old grudge that’s better left alone.”

Mako followed Iroh to their car, which was parked along the docks next to the airport.

“So,” Iroh said, “with the house to ourselves, I’m thinking we order take out and just relax and unwind for the rest of the day.”

“Works for me,” Mako said, reaching across to grab Iroh’s hand where it rested on the gearshift. Mako couldn’t even mind as his hand was occasionally jerked around as Iroh changed gears.

“You know as annoying as everything they did was, I have to say, I’m glad they at least got our feelings out in the open, even if it was messy,” Mako said. “I guess I can give them the tiniest bit of credit, but only the tiniest amount. Anymore would inflate their egos.”

“Give and inch they’ll take a mile,” Iroh joked.

“Which is why I waited till it was just us to say that,” Mako replied.

The two laughed as Iroh pulled up to an undescriptive house in the Little Embers district.

“Looks plainer than I was expecting,” Mako said.

“That’s the point, no one would look for me in a house like this unless they knew I lived here,” Iroh said, pulling out their suitcases and Mako’s bags. “My granddad survived one too many assassination attempts, to not be overly cautious about his family now.”

“I’m glad,” Mako said, awkwardly. “Don’t really want you being assassinated.”

Iroh unlocked their door and Mako took in as much of the main room as he could. It was a pretty nice space with a sofa and chair set facing the window. The fireplace was on the far side of the room across from the armchair. There were two doorways, one leading to a kitchen off to the side and the other leading up the stairs into an office and bedroom area.

There was a book on the side table next to the armchair and unless Mako was imagining things the page turned on its own.

“Um,” Mako said, looking back at Iroh only to find them glaring at the armchair. “Is that book reading itself.”

“No, you know how I told you I’d explain how Lu Ten was giving me advice later?” Iroh asked.

“Yeah,” Mako said.

“He’s haunting me, so I guess we have a roommate,” Iroh said. They paused for a moment. “Your right about that, of course you’re not welcome in my bedroom, you weirdo.”

“Your family is weird,” Mako said, staring as the page of the book turned with a bit more aggression then last time.

“Yours isn’t any better,” Iroh replied.

“You’re not wrong, but at least mine doesn’t have a spirit following us around,” Mako said. “So, how’s this going to work?”

“Ah, you’ll have to sleep in my room with me, unless you want to sleep on a sofa for a week,” Iroh said, “but it should be fine considering we already broke the sleeping barrier.”

“Yeah, I guess that does work,” Mako said, helping Iroh get all their things up the stairs.

They set their suitcases down and turned to each other. Mako couldn’t have said which of them moved first, all he knew was that they were kissing again.

Iroh could say they wanted to go slow all they wanted but unless they had the greatest amount of willpower on the planet, something told Mako they would be having sex before this next week ended.

Iroh’s bed proved too tempting, and they fell back together onto it though, they were both too tired to do anything more than sleep. The two quickly found themselves wound around one another and falling asleep, their hands still locked together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Scene!
> 
> Anyway this has been a fun one even it it's been a chaotic one and sorry it was so later in the day when I posted this, didn't edit it the night before and had to do so today.
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
